Kid Icarus: A Boy Named Pit
by sitebender
Summary: Join Pit "Kid Icarus" on his long quest to save goddess Palutena from Medusa. There are more twists on my story than the game, such as more friendly characters, back story, and overall depth. Plenty of foes, battles, whimsy and charm.
1. Chapter 1: Between Good and Evil

CHAPTER 1: BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

CHAPTER 1: BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

In a time where mortals and gods lived amongst each other, the world was full of light. The goddess Palutena encouraged mortals to flourish and she bestowed the nurturing light down upon them.

However, after centuries of prosperity, came the darkness from the goddess Medusa. The two goddesses struggled for control of the mortal land of the over world.

Palutena ruled from her palace in the heavens while Medusa ruled from a dark fortress of the underworld. Both goddesses had their own beauty and served as a balance to one another. Palentina had a body made of flesh that most resembled a mortal being, while Medusa had a cold pale blue body that had never seen the light of day before.

Medusa's body was withered, slender and sickly, while Palutena's was ripe, healthy and as perky as the sun. That was their preferred chosen form, but they could take different forms to either fool or delight the mortals that inhabited the lands.

That is how Medusa could take the form of a storm cloud and brought darkness over much of the world. She forced the mortals to endure rains that drown their crops and fierce winds that blew houses from their foundations.

Our story starts with Medusa as a terrible storm that battered a small farm town for days. Medusa had the intent on flooding the land beyond recognition and destroying the town by wiping it clean.

A young couple that was once happy and thriving in the light of Palutena had endured for a short while. They could tell that the evil Medusa was amongst the black clouds that loomed overhead. They saw their doom coming when houses in their town were blown from the surface of the over world.

Houses either wilted or were completely obliterated depending on what material they were constructed of. There was only one hope for the young couple. The young husband ordered his wife to, "Put our baby in the fireplace. Zeus the king of gods has told me that he will be safe there."

The brown haired wife put her only child into the fireplace in a basket amongst the black suit and ashes. They then closed the darkened hatch on the fireplace as the baby cried.

The house that they had called home for five years was then blown away piece by piece by Medusa. Straw from the roof and stone from the foundation flew into the sky before ultimately the two young parents flew up into the darkness above.

Seeking retaliation for the obliteration of the town, Palutena challenged her rival Medusa to an epic battle. An epic battle that would last a number of years, but the important thing is that was the moment Palutena decided to fight back.

The goddesses did battle on the over world in many forms; Both in their mortal forms with swords, scepters and shields; then in a battle of the elements with Medusa as a thunderstorm and Palutena as a wind to blow the clouds away.

It was of course the mortals that suffered and perished during this time. Deserts formed where there were once luscious forests. Temples and fortresses fell under the might of the two goddesses that used them as battlegrounds.

Finally it was Palutena that was victorious. She had beaten and withered the powers of Medusa down to nothing. The beautiful pale goddess was so weakened that she could no longer defend herself against her counterpart.

Palutena commanded with her powerful yet femme voice, "As punishment for your chaos in the mortal over world, I will take your beauty from you my sister Medusa."

The pale goddess hissed and coiled her body in a dark corner of the fortress they had done battle in. She was weak and shivering, with her long green hair trembling over her long torn toga. The goddess put pressure with the palm of her left hand on her missing eye as she screamed to Palutena, "Let me go dear sister!"

Palutena boldly proclaimed, "Your green hair will be replaced by green scaled serpents." Instantly the thick strands of long hair became snakes that hissed and fought amongst one another.

The curse was not done at that point, Palutena continued, "Your once beautiful face will now ruin any mortal and turn them into solid stone if they look upon your gaze."

Medusa screeched in the agony of what she was being transformed into and she tried to crawl away from Palutena's might. The will of the goodly goddess was too much for the evil Medusa to suffer through.

The curse was finally over as Palutena used the last remaining power she had to curse Medusa, "You crawl away when you should slither! Let those long legs of yours become a single serpent's tail!"

With that proclaimed, Medusa's long legs merged as one and elongated into a thick green serpent's tail.

Palutena was too weak from using her powers to continue and Medusa was allowed to escape the dark fortress back into the under world where she had come from. There was no way that a goddess could be destroyed anyway. Palutena was forced to have this mercy on her sister.

Medusa went back to the under world humiliated and ashamed of her loss. She vowed revenge that she would one day have, "I will conquer your palace Palutena and destroy the mortals that you seek to protect under your charming light." With that she shook her fist back to the over world as she slithered deeper into the ground.

As for the baby boy that had been hidden amongst the ashes of his parent's home, he was found days later long before the defeat of Medusa. The only thing in the village that had survived Medusa's wrath had been the chimney and fireplace the boy was left in.

Centurions lead by a man named Collin heard the baby's screams. They followed the cries that beckoned them through the rubble that was his home.

Collin in his golden armor rushed onto the rubble and began to clear it away. He threw off his pristine helmet to reveal his curled hair and chiseled good looks. He cried out, "Over here men! I have found where the baby cries from!"

The rubble was cleared away after an hour of removing stone and wood. The hatch of the fireplace was then opened. Inside was an infant covered in the suite that resided before him.

Collin pulled his basket out of the fireplace and then removed the boy to cradle him in his arms. Collin commented, "The only shame that I can think of is that the fireplace was not big enough to hold this child's mother and father."

He then looked to the men that he commanded and asked, "Who will take this boy and raise him as his own?" He continued to look amongst his men, but through the bronze armor no one said a word.

After a moment, it was Collin himself that proclaimed, "Then I will take this boy and raise him; protect him as his parents protected him."

Collin looked down upon the crying and suite covered baby before he proclaimed, "And I will name him Pit so he can always remember where he came from and always strive to get out and reach for the sunlight above. Perhaps with the help of Zeus he can even stand up to Medusa and punish her for this."

Years passed by and Collin had raised Pit well from an infant to a boy just before his teens; a brown haired boy with a long lock of hair that draped over his left eye. His beautiful blue eyes could never catch anyone's eye contact without him shying away with a charming little smile.

In all of that time Pit was being raised, Medusa had been defeated by Palutena, but plotted her revenge on her. As a hideous creature of the under world, she made pacts with the demons and foul creatures to do her bidding as her unholy army that would destroy the mortals.

At the left side of Medusa was a strange wizard that had grown out of the ground from an egg plant. It was Medusa's magic that had brought him to life and she had taught him how to use quirky magic to aide her evil schemes. He had only been birthed a few years before, so while he was not the wisest wizard, he still did the bidding of Medusa.

On the right of Medusa's thrown was a sadistic reaper. He was the darkened and ghastly spirit that would drag souls from their mortal lives and drag them into the underworld where they were transformed by Medusa. Wearing a dark cloak, he would only show his skeletal face to those that he was about to cut their life strings.


	2. Chapter 2: Life as it Is

CHAPTER 1: BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

CHAPTER 2: LIFE AS IT IS

In the over world was a small kingdom ruled by a good ruler that looked after his people as the goddess Palutena would. That is where Collin lived; in that kingdom. He had a small cottage, humble for a man that not only was the commander of the ruler's troops, but a man that had gained the favor of Palutena herself.

Collin took his son Pit out daily and guided him through the challenges of life. He merely served to guide him, and give him advice whenever Pit came to him. However, like most boys his age, Pit rarely asked for advice and often found himself in more trouble than he could handle.

Pit found trouble like fishing and trying to catch a fish so big that Pit was pulled from the dock. The fish had won that day, but Pit learned not to catch something that was bigger than even he was. He did it all at the side of his father Collin that when Pit emerged from the murky water he would say, "Pit my boy, what are we going to do with you?"

With a light hearted smile as he swam back to the dock, he would respond how he always would, "You should have left me in that chimney father!" It was always said with a smile as a joke.

Collin pulled him out of the water as he still held onto his pole. With a single hand Collin pulled the youth from the cold water.

Once Pit was pulled out, Collin's line had a bite. The twine jerked and pulled through the water and Collin told him, "Here Pit, catch us dinner." He then handed the pole to his son with a smile.

With a few tugs, Pit pulled out a big fish from the water. A hefty fish that flopped and made a smile of accomplishment form on Pit's face followed by, "Thanks father!"

That was one event at the end of the day. Each night Collin would tuck in young Pit and tell him, "Pleasant dreams my angel boy. You will be a hero one day to mortals and more importantly to a woman one day!"

The boy would laugh and say, "Oh father, girls are so…"

"Beautiful," wondered Collin, before he continued with other adjectives, "Soft? Chipper; fruitful in a way that you will understand one day?"

"No," said Pit, "Smelly. Anna is smelly."

A smile formed on Collin's chiseled face as he pondered, "You are right my boy, she does smell." He leaned in to his son and elaborated, "Smells like rose petals and fresh water unlike yourself stinky child!"

Pit lifted the bed sheets and smelled underneath of them before he said, "I smell fine."

His father retorted, "Fine for a boy, but not for a girl. You see they are supposed to smell clean or like flowers. Boys and men smell like sweat, dirt and you in particular Pit smell like fish."

Pit said, "Do not! I smell like…"

Collin jumped in to say, "Do not say a pig."

"I smell like me," said Pit with a smile, only to hear his father tell him, "Which is why you will be taking a bath tomorrow my boy!"

After all of the smiles ended, and the bedtime story had been read, Collin left Pit to sleep with his room decorated with cherubs.

In the morning at dawn came Pit's target practice. Lined up with Centurions that fought for the ruler of the over world, Pit took his place with a bow and arrow.

At the end of the line, Pit was half the size of every other man that stood with their long bows pointed at their round targets. Collin commanded them all, "Ready." The men gripped their bows, and pulled back far on the string. "Aim," said Collin, as the men had one eye closed. As for Pit with the lock of long brown hair covering his eye, he could see perfectly. There was no sun in his aiming eye, because it was shaded from the hair draped over it.

Collin screamed, "Fire!" Holding his breath, Pit would fire an arrow straight into the bull's eye of his target board just as he had done thousands of times before. And just like thousands of times before the Centurions were impressed, just as Collin was, "That is astounding how you can hit the bull's eye each and every time Pit!"

Pit would always flick the hair away from his blue eye to see how accurate he was. As always, the arrow was stuck in the bull's eye several meters away. He had shot the same distance as the Centurions in line with him, only he had done it more accurate than anyone else. A smile always overcame his young face at the fact he had made Collin proud of him.

At the end of target practice each day, Pit would always leave his bow at the archery range, hug his father goodbye and then race home. He would race down the dirt paths to the town, passing by happy villagers in their togas. Occasionally Pit would bump into them and scream, "Sorry!" Then he would turn around and continue to tread a path to Collin's cottage.

Once he got home, he would throw the door open to discover a girl there. Not that much older than Pit, she stood a lot taller than him. She would usually be cooking something for breakfast and would turn around with a small smile as she said, "Hello Pit!"

Her hair had brown curls and always had a white flower pinned in it. She wore a toga just like everyone else, but hers was white and clean, while Pit's was beaten and dingy.

With a mixing bowl in her hands, she would always ask, "How was target practice? Get any bull's eyes?"

Pit would always try to hold his little smile back as he said, "One or two for you Anna."

With a smile and a giggle, she said, "So who are all the other bull's eyes for? Your father tells me you always hit the target dead center." This time, she put down the bowl and walked to Pit with a girly smile as she added, "Gonna tell me who those other bull's eyes are for or do I need to start looking under your bed?"

Pit warned her, "Don't look under my bed!"

Anna got close to his ear. Close enough that Pit trembled when a wisp of her brown hair caressed his cheek. She asked in a whisper, "Why not?"

With a whisper, Pit replied, "There are monsters under there."

A smile grew on Anna's face briefly, but she composed herself, "If there are monsters under there, why do you not use them for target practice?"

Laughter overcame Pit as he told her, "Cause they are scary!"

Anna pulled her head away from Pit's as she said, "I think you are just hiding other kid sitters in here." With a smirk on her young face, she wondered, "Holding out on me huh?"

Pit replied, "Nu-uh," as Anna went over to Pit's small bed near the wall.

After she dropped to her knees, Anna lowered her head and exclaimed, "By the beard of Zeus!"

"What is it?" Pit wondered.

She turned her head to Pit, and exclaimed, "Do not look Pit!"

"Why not?" He wondered.

Anna yelled with her face under his bed, "It's a gateway into the underworld Pit! All under your bed! I see snakes and demons!"

Pit darted to the bed, dropped to his knees and looked under the bed as he wondered, "Really?"

"No," said Anna, "Not hardly. I see dirt and nothing that could sustain a dust bunny let alone an entire under world." After that was said, she helped herself up off the ground and uttered, "You are so gullible."

Pit pulled his head up over the bed and commented, "I am a kid you know."

Anna felt his shoulder and said, "But one day you will be a man." Then with a bounce in her head and a little wink, she said, "And a pretty cute one at that."

There was a smile of Pit's face, but he tried to hide it from her by pointing his face in a different direction. Anna tried to make him smile more, "Yeah, I said it!"

She strolled away shaking her head over the thought of him becoming a man. Before Anna could think anymore about it, she asked, "So where are you hiding these other sitters?"

Exuberated, Pit told her, "There are no other baby sitters in here!"

With a smile, Anna turned around with the curls of her long angelic hair swaying from the inertia of her spin. She told him, "Better not be, cause otherwise I'm not going to give you the gift I made."

Pit quickly enquired boyishly, "What is it?"

Anna turned around and put up her nose comically, "Not telling."

Pit exclaimed, "What? You cannot do that!"

"Sure I can," Anna said looking over her shoulder with a smile, "I can do anything I want, I am the sitter here."

With a slightly sad expression, Pit lowered his head and his hair draped over his left eye as he said, "Got it."

Anna walked over to him and ran her hand through his long lock of hair that covered his eye and wondered, "When are you going to cut this thing?"

"Never," said Pit, before he elaborated, "It blocks the sun from my eye when I shoot my arrows."

"Well one day," Anna started to say, "Some fancy girl is going to be in love with you and love looking in those blue eyes." She said it while she still had the lock of his hair swept away from his eye. It was said with a smile and wholesome love, before she let go of the hair and said, "Until then, you are a kid."

Pit was smitten, just as he was from her charm one thousand times before, each and every day. Anna then added, "And if you are a good kid, I will give you that gift when your father returns home."


	3. Chapter 3: Kid Icarus

CHAPTER 3: KID ICARUS

CHAPTER 3: KID ICARUS

Inside the cottage, Anna watched over Pit as she did every day while Collin trained his Centurions. The sun rose high in the day, just as Palutena made it each day.

Pit was the best boy that he could be. With that being said, he was overly helpful to the point of being a pain in Anna's side. She had to tell him constantly, "No Pit, you cannot help me cook."

Later she had to tell him, "No Pit, we have enough firewood, besides that it is the summer." Later still, she thanked him, "Okay every spider in this cottage is dead, I feel safer now, but they were not bothering me!"

Eventually she told him, "You have been overly good Pit. You little do gooder. Enough candy makes a person sick; got that?"

"Got it," replied Pit, before he asked, "So what is the gift?"

Just after saying that, the door to the cottage opened and Collin entered with a smile and without a helmet. He greeted the two of them, "How is my favorite boy and girl?"

Pit informed Collin that, "Anna made a gift for me father."

He questioned, "She did? I would love to see it before you have to go home to your parents."

From an ugly and tattered sack, Anna pulled out her gift; a pair of angel's wings for Pit. They were exceptionally crafted and Anna told them, "These will help him get closer to Zeus."

"Try them on," said Collin as Anna presented Pit with the wings. With a slick motion, Pit slung the wings on his back. They were held on with shoulder straps and Collin shook his head in amazement. Collin then told her, "These are astonishing."

She uttered, "Thanks Collin, each feather is made of wax."

Collin asked his son, "What do you say Pit?"

Without saying a word, he jumped up and gave Anna a hug with his arms and feet.

She then commented, "Wow you can fly with these wings it looks like."

Pit blurted out, "I love them Anna!" He would not let go of her to a point of comedy, but not awkwardness.

Collin stated, "On wings of wax, Icarus flew too close to the sun and his feathers melted."

Pit looked to his father and wondered, "What?"

Collin's only response was to tell his son, "You are a regular kid Icarus with those wings on." He was still astonished with an open mouthed slight smirk on his face.

Eventually Collin snapped out of it and told them, "We both thank you for this gift Anna, but Pit and I have an event to get to."

Anna wondered, "Where to? Can I come with?"

Collin gently told her, "Anywhere else you would be able to come with us, but this is someone that does not welcome guests as freely as you or I would."

That left Anna to ponder, "Who is it?"

"Goddess Palutena," said Collin, only to hear Anna retort, "You are right, she does not welcome visitors, which is why she lives in the heavens."

Anna then looked to Pit and ran her fingers through his hair and commented, "Well Kid Icarus, maybe you can fly to her palace on your new wings." She then turned to Collin and commented, "I need to get going too or else my mother will have a cow." She then strolled toward the door of the cottage and told them, "Bye you two, oh and bye you hunky man!"

After the door closed shut, Collin lifted his son, whirled him around and asked, "Which one of us did she say that to?"

With a smile Pit looked at Collin and said, "She said that to me. She is too young for you father."

Collin asked, "Is there something you want to tell me about?"

"She has a thing for me," said Pit with a laughing smile on his rosy cheeks.

Collin told him, "Treat her well and maybe she will be son." He then put his son down and uttered, "We need to get ready to meet a goddess my boy. You need to be spotless so into the bath with you!"

Pit asked, "Is that what you must do each time you see her?"

"Every time," Collin told him, "And if you think that is bad, I must have my worn armor polished any dis beauty will offend her eyes." He followed that with a slight tickle of Pit and said, "And then she may turn you into a girl so you will bathe more when you meet her again!"

There was laughter from both of them that could be heard from outside the door as the sun set beyond the forest that surrounded the village.

Later that night, after Pit had a bath and after both Collin and Pit had traveled to the gates of Mount Olympus they were greeted by a chariot. The chariot was pristine, white and soared passengers through the sky on their way to the amazingly gorgeous palace of Palutena.

As the Pegasus chariot flew overhead, Pit and Collin looked over the sides to see a beautiful flower garden with holy whitish yellow flowers that seemed to magically blossom as they arrived. The flowers almost smiled at the two of them, as Pit wondered, "I have never seen flowers like this before father."

Collin informed his son, "Those are called Daphnes; they are the personal favorite of goddess Palutena."

When the two of them arrived at the steps of the giant white palace and bid their ride, "Farewell!" On the steps, Pit asked, "How is this place here high above the skies?"

Collin explained, "This is the realm of the gods. This entire palace is sustained by the powers goddess Palutena. She can do as she pleases, which is why you must be on your best behavior."

Pit pointed to the wax wings on his back with his thumb and said, "I know all about good behavior."

The two of them walked into the doors of the giant palace and were guided by rows of armless and topless statues of women that lined the walls. The carpet was red and stretched through the palace over a tiled marble floor. It was grand with hundreds of white pillars holding up the massive roof.

With a humble sound in his voice, Pit stated, "This hallway could fit fifty of our cottage!" Then he turned around while holding Collin's hand and looked backward, "No this could fit one thousand of our cottage!"

Pit turned back around and continued to walk with his father as Pit pondered, "Does Palutena not get tired of walking this day in and day out?"

Collin informed his son, "No she does not."

Pit wondered, "Why not?"

From a balcony above, a beautiful woman answered down to them, "Because I can transport myself by the power of my mind."


	4. Chapter 4: Palutena

CHAPTER 3: KID ICARUS

CHAPTER 4: PALUTENA

Within the longest hall that both Pit and Collin would ever know, they both took a bow underneath the balcony of Palutena. She stood above them and looked down upon them as she gently held onto the balcony in a joyous way.

Her hair was tremendously long, blonde and stretched down to beyond her feet. With her powers, her hair kept gently moving and swaying so that it would never touch the floor. Her eyes were blue as the sky that her palace presided over. There was no smile on her face even if she felt joy. She had experienced everything that a mortal had experienced thousands of years ago, so there were no new experiences to create a smile.

She looked over them in a glorious white toga trimmed with gold as she asked Collin, "This is your son that I have seen from the heavens above?"

Collin kept his bow and told her, "Yes goddess Palentina, this is my son Pit." The golden armor of Collin gleamed as he held his son's hand with his right and his helmet with his left. There was even an olive branch that made a halo through his hair.

Palantina commanded, "Stand son of Collin and introduce yourself."

His father told him, "Do it son. Introduce yourself."

"I am named Pit," he said, as he stood up and took a step forward, "Named for the fire pit that I was found in by my father."

"I have seen this," said Palutena, before she informed him, "You have my deepest sorrows that your parents fell prey to Medusa before I could stop her."

"But if you are a goddess," inquired Pit, but his father tried to stop him, "No Pit."

Pit shook off his father's hand and asked, "If you have the power to do anything, why do you not bring back my parents?"

There was a whisper in the air that could only be heard by Palutena, "He wants revenge." A transparent shadow crept along the wall next to Palutena.

With her mind, Palutena communicated, "He wants his parents back my dear Erinus."

The transparent shadow walked behind Palutena and then joined her at her side as he whispered, "He can be the one to purify your sister. That will be his revenge."

Palutena ignored the whisper in her ear and informed the Pit verbally, "Because gods and goddesses cannot interfere in the affairs of mortals. We cannot restore them to life, or heal them. We can only test them as Medusa does or change the weather."

"As a goddess," Palutena explained, "Medusa cannot be destroyed or killed; she can only be purified and cleansed of the evil within her."

A small yellow haired angel appeared from behind one of the giant white columns that lined the hallway. The androgynous angel had no legs, merely short feet that came out from underneath of its toga. The yellow bangs of the angel were so long they concealed the angel's eyes completely.

On feathered wings, the angel fluttered, it uttered, "It has wings!" More angels appeared from behind the columns and giggled with smirks unseen to Collin and Pit.

The angel fluttered circles around the two visitors and asked, "Where did it get the wings Palutena?"

Palutena knew all and everything, which is why the angels asked her. However, Pit did not know this and he asked, "How would goddess Palutena know?"

With a gasp, the androgynous angel rotated around and yelled, "Goddess Palutena knows everything that happens on the mortal land. Goddess Palutena grants wings of angels!"

Palutena called down to Pit, "Do not be and tell them how you got your wings."

A smile formed on his face and Palutena called down again, "And tell us why you are smiling."

Collin uttered, "Tell them Pit."

"I smile for the girl that made me these wings," stated Pit as he shied away from Palutena.

Palutena then beckoned Pit, "Join me on my balcony so that we may speak closer."

Pit let go of his father's hand and rushed up the tall angelic staircase that lead up to the inner balcony. As his feet raced up the stairs, he called out, "You really do know everything Palutena!"

Collin was not as quick to follow. His foot steps tread slower than Pit's who was in a great hurry. Meanwhile, the yellow haired angel fluttered its angelic wings and rotated in circles as it came to the height of the balcony.

The blonde angel blurted out with a giggle, "Beat you Pit!" There was laughter from both Pit and the angel as Palutena introduced them, "This is my messenger Toodles."

Palutena then gestured with her arm down to the five other angels below them. Each angel still hid behind the pillars and peaked their heads out. One angel had red hair, another orange, blue, purple and finally green. She then introduced them, "You must excuse them, as they rarely have seen mortals in my palace."

She then ran her slender fingers through the blonde hair of Toodles as she said, "This one here is my messenger, and it has delivered many things to mortals." Toodles fluttered its wings to keep with a height that met Palutena's arm.

Palutena had no idea that children are different than adults as she uttered, "Now Pit you must tell me of yourself." With that said, Collin finally joined them at the top of the heavenly staircase on the balcony.

Pit wondered, "What would you not know?"

Palutena then explained, "The one thing that I cannot sense or predict is a mortal's mind. The mortal mind is so erratic."

He retorted, "I feel like there are butterflies in my stomach being in your presence. The olive loaf bread I had for lunch wants to come out."

Her eyes closed and a brief smile overcame her face for the first time in one hundred years as she told Pit, "I have never heard that reaction before. Nor has a smile formed on this face in nearly a century."

Toodles fluttered its wings to the side of her and uttered, "I'll say." Palutena's arm fell to her side from Toodle's hair as she fell to one knee to speak to Pit.

She put her hands on Pit's shoulders and said, "These wings and your youth make you look like Cupid young one."

Collin's chiseled face had a toothless smirk and boldly proclaimed, "He has every young woman in the land after him."

Palutena looked into Pit's blue eye and wondered, "Is this true Pit?"

"Not its not," he told her, "Just our neighbor Anna."

As Palutena reached to Pit's wax wings and felt them, she commented, "With craftsmanship like this, I can tell that she had love in her heart to labor of this skill for you Pit." She was impressed and glanced over Pit's shoulder with curiosity.

Pit could feel the warmth from the hands of Palutena, but despite her warmth, the wings of wax never melted. That was Palutena's ultimate control over everything.

From beside Palutena, the whispered voice of Erinus could be heard by only the goddess, "He can purify the heart of your sister."

Palutena thought her response to the transparent shadow that loomed next to her, "This boy will have no part in a battle. He is too young."

The whispers of Erinus responded, "Which makes him perfect to cleanse her. This young boy has not been spoiled or tainted by battle like the Centurions, nor has his heart been broken yet. He is the perfect one to cleanse the evil from her."

Instead of acknowledging the voice, Palutena told Pit, "We just need a bow and arrow for you to complete your cupid look."

Collin boasted about his boy, "My son has a gift with aim that only the gods could have provided him." It was true in more ways than any of them knew.

Erinus whispered to Palutena, "Prove me wrong."

Palutena stood up off of her knee and asked Collin, "Do you have a bow and arrow on you?"

He informed her, "It would be foolish for me to have brought a weapon into your palace."

There was amusement in the mind of Palutena, but a smile did not crack her face. Instead she told Pit, "Waiting in another room is a gift that you may keep."

Pit felt joy, but tried not to show it, as he said, "Thank you Palutena."

She then added, "If and only if you can pass my test." With that she gestured into the next room and all three of them looked further into the palace.

There was a bow and arrow lying on a white pedestal with a light that gleamed down upon them. Pit charged into the next room, but carefully approached the gift.

It was a small bow, with quiver and only one single copper arrow. In Palutena's mind she had chosen a copper arrow as Pit is young, he should have something greater to look forward to in life such as golden arrows. Collin stood beside her and said, "Thank you for this gift," only to hear Palutena state, "He has not earned it yet."

Pit threw the quiver on over his back and it fit perfectly between his two wings of wax. His hair gleamed in the light that shined down from above as he gripped the short bow in his hands. He called out a hearty, "Thank you for this opportunity Palutena!"

He stretched the twine of the bow as he readied for the test. Toodles fluttered its wings and hovered around the beautiful Palutena as she prepared the test for Pit. When she was done, Palutena informed him, "You are going to shoot this simple red paper through the center."

Without giving Pit any time at all to prepare, she threw the red sheet of paper into the air. Pit watched in awe as the paper rolled and streamed through the air. He took aim, but the paper's movement was unpredictable, so he held his breath and shot an arrow that lanced through the paper and stuck the copper arrow into the wall.

With the paper stuck to the pillar, it was now still enough for everyone to see that it was a red heart. Toodles fluttered over and grabbed the arrow out from the pillar and commented, "He hit it right through the center!"

It was amazing, but even more amazing, when Toodles took it to Collin and Pit, they read that the paper said, "Pit + Anna." The arrow had gone right through the cross section of the plus.

Immense heat came over Pit's body, because he was turning red. There was no time to feel happy though.

The five other multi hair colored angels all fluttered into the room and swirled around Palutena. The one with red hair uttered, "Danger!" The orange hair told her, "Terrible!" Then the one with blue hair said, "Horrible!" The purple haired angel exclaimed, "Its Medusa!" Finally the green haired angel yelled, "She approaches your palace with an army!"


	5. Chapter 5: Medusa

CHAPTER 5: MEDUSA

On the plane of mortals stomped the evil Medusa. Her size had twice increased since the last time anyone had seen her more than a decade ago. Her pale blue body now towered over the mortals she terrorized. There was a simple white cloth that hung loosely around her head to cover her missing left eye.

She gazed down to the helpless citizens and wave after wave they were turned into stone. Farmers were covered with a thin stone shell forever preserving the fear on their faces and the terror in their trembling bodies. Women with their children were solidified as one when the stone overcame their bodies.

Medusa led an attack of hideous creatures that followed behind her. Behind her were the lesser creatures of the underworld that did her bidding, while her two sidekicks stood next to her giant scaled tail.

On her right was a reaper who had never seen the light of day before. He was covered in a shroud of black night and wrapped in a cloak of dark fabric that whipped in the wind. His skeleton face could be seen from within the darkness beneath of the shroud that covered him. There were no eyes in the skull's sockets, so no one could tell just what the reaper was looking at.

He did not have to gaze upon something to cause its destruction. From beneath of his wind whipping cape came a burst of tiny reapettes; smaller and lesser reapers without sickles. The terrifying trite of reapettes swooped amongst the daylight with streams of black night and smoke that followed them.

Eventually the streams of black night had crossed over one another enough to blot out the sun. That is when the swarm of swooping reapettes dove down upon the over world kingdom. Each reapette would tear the soul from a mortal. The souls could be seen leaving their flesh bodies in an airy white spirit like form. The reapettes giggled and cackled in delight of their death.

Meanwhile, the reaper himself challenged the land's Centurions. The first wave of bronze armored men rushed at the reaper with their swords drawn, while the second wave fired arrows at Medusa. The Centurions with their swords out came face to face with the reaper only to get beheaded by the reaper's sickle. In a terrifying display, bronze helmets hit the ground and the heads within shriveled up into chunks of red meat.

As for Medusa's other sidekick the Eggplant Wizard, he raised his staff and chanted loudly into the air, "Purpulous Eggplantious!" With the wave of his staff, and the twirl of his cape, mortals were turned into giant eggplants. Their bodies contorted into giant ripened purple fruit with feet. The first to be turned into eggplants ran around bumping into things like houses and the well at the center of town.

Then after another minute, they were consumed by the lesser creatures that surrounded Medusa. Dozens of different creatures that numbered in the thousands; they were winged demons, snakes, and single eyed monsters with a thirst for eggplant.

Medusa cackled into the fresh night sky at the easy defeat of that mortal town. Next would be the keep of the ruler of the over world. A place that Pit had been every day for target practice with Collin.

The keep was massive and constructed like a fortress to defend the ruler within. However, for Medusa's thousand creature army, that would not make a difference.

From within Palutena's palace, Collin shouted, "I need to do something!" There was nothing he could do, and the six androgynous angels tried to hold him back, Toodles even shouted, "Wait brave Collin! It will never make it there in time!"

All of them watched the carnage from a magical hole in the floor of Palutena's palace. The goddess then pointed out, "One man can do nothing against an army like that!"

He boldly proclaimed, "Then consider my loss a sacrifice to the gods and to my kingdom." Collin struggled against the six angels that held him at his arms and legs as they screamed, "No!"

The invisible shadow that watched over them uttered to Palutena, "He wants revenge, let him go and see what happens."

Palutena stood behind Collin and sternly told him, "You will not leave."

In an instant, Collin eased up and turned his head to the side to look at her out of the corner of his eyes. He then asked her, "My goddess I will do as you ask."

With Collin not pressing forward, Toodles, the yellow haired angel fluttered beyond them into the other room. It went over the balcony and floated down to the great hall beneath of them.

She then informed him, "Your duty is to protect this child your son and never leave him alone to fend for himself."

Pit merely continued to look at the chaotic vision, unaware that they were talking about him. He was in awe and whispered, "Anna, please be alright." He then put one of his finger nails in his mouth and started to gently press his teeth around his finger nail with worry.

Toodles then appeared from over the railing of the balcony and said, "Uh goddess. We have a problem I think."

She gently asked her messenger, "What is it?"

As Pit looked into the image of the attack, he whispered, "Medusa."

Palutena and Collin both turned to look at the magical image of the attack. It was then that they could see Medusa create a massive bridge up to the heavens with a ribbon of black energy. The ribbon flowed past the sky and landed on the edge of Palutena's palace.

Medusa herself began to climb the bridge, leaving her creatures behind with the reaper and the Eggplant Wizard. She had her tail wrapped around the giant bridge and she curved and contorted her body around it. Her body continued to grow in size as she slithered in a coil around the bridge as she climbed.

The sadistic snake haired former beauty cackled as she called out, "Palutena! By Erinus I will have my revenge on that beautiful blonde head of yours!"

Palutena communicated with her thoughts to the invisible Erinus, "You betrayed me."

Erinus said with a snide whisper, "I cannot be blamed to align myself with those that seek revenge."

Collin then turned around and looked over the large room they were in. He blurted out, "Where did Pit go?" It was true; there were only six angels, a goddess and a Centurion in the room they were in.

Huffing and puffing his way down the great hall was Pit as he raced to the front doors of the palace. Collin raced to the balcony and appeared over the head of Pit.

The father called out to his son, "Come back here Pit!" The boy carried his new gift of a bow as he yelled out, "I need to see if Anna is alright!"

Meanwhile, Palutena turned to Toodles whose mouth was wide open in shock at what it saw. Palutena told Toodles, "Find Zeus and tell him that Medusa is about to enter my palace."

Toodles took its hand and pointed its finger to the air and twirled its finger around. The angel then yelled, "With pleasure!" With a chipper smile on its face, the yellow haired angel added, "Up; up and away!" The angel then disappeared through the ceiling of the palace as if it did not even exist.

Just after the Toodles disappeared is when Medusa entered through the front archway of the palace. Her giant body had increased in size again where she stood four times the size of any mortal man. The serpents that made up her hair nudged against the ceiling as they hissed. She was so massive that her clawed hands could grip and fit around the columns that held up the roof.

The five remaining angels took cover behind columns and nude statues where they cowering in the fear of Medusa's serpents. The green haired angel stopped to look at one of the statues before being grabbed by the red haired angel and forced to hide.

Medusa called out with a hiss, "In thousands of years, this is the first time I have ever been to your palace my sister!" Medusa then looked over the grand hall made of marble, white columns and red carpet before she commented, "It is too perfect for someone flawed like you Palutena!"

Collin and Palutena both came to the balcony to look at the one eyed goddess. Her eye was gigantic and Palutena could not warn Collin about her sister's gaze. It was against the rules that she was forced to follow. There was no interference or warnings that could be given to mortals.

Instead, Collin already knew not to look from what he had seen earlier. He shut his eyes and reached for his bow. Even with his eyes closed, there was no way that he could miss a target as gigantic as that. However, he then realized that he had no bow, it had been left at home.

Palutena screamed out, "Leave my palace at once!"

The snakes in Medusa's hair hissed and crept closer to Collin and the goddess. Medusa responded when one of her serpents snapped its mouth shut near Collin. She told them, "You ask me to leave when I just arrived?" Then she added, "It was a long journey to get here! I had to make an alliance between every creature of the underworld, then I had to slither all the way here."

One of the snakes in her hair snapped at Palutena, but never did Palutena shake her strength in the face of the hideous Medusa. Palutena then asked, "Why have you come here?"

With a whisper, Erinus the invisible shadow answered, "She is here for revenge."

Medusa screeched in a loud voice that nearly blew down Collin, "You stabbed out my eye, you turned me into a serpent and you banished me to the Underword; yet you ask why I have come?" She then moved her face close to the balcony and narrowed her single eye to focus on the two people that she confronted. The large snakes in her hair curved around the balcony to surround Palutena and Collin. Medusa then hissed, "I am here to make you suffer."

Four serpents from Medusa's hair snapped their jaws on Palutena to catch all of her limbs and hold her. There she was with her limbs pulled away from her beautiful body, captured in the mouths of four deadly serpents.

Meanwhile, Pit was watching everything from behind a pillar. Medusa and her snakes had not noticed him yet.

With her gaze narrowed on Collin, Medusa wondered, "You hide your eyes from me." Then with a cackle in her throat, she bellowed, "But now you will see things through my eyes and do my bidding!"

After that was said, a large red worm with a single large eye and a pair of wings appeared. It slithered along the balcony rail and curled around it as it came closer to Collin. The eye of the worm was much larger than the worm's long body and had no pupil to it; just a greasy yellowish mucosal membrane over it. Without any warning, the single eyed red worm dove straight at Collin's mouth. The worm wrapped around his head and Collin tried to struggle against it as he screamed in fear.

The worm eventually worked its eye straight into Collin's mouth and with its wings; the worm propelled itself and dove down his throat. It was a horrific sight with a worm consumed whole. Collin began to stagger backward, coughing and choking with the worm inside of him. Eventually he dropped to one knee grabbing his throat.

The choking soon stopped and Collin rose off of his knee. He stood tall with his head lowered and his eyes closed for a moment, before he put on his helmet. The helmet made of gold had a T opening for his vision. His face could never be seen with the helmet on, and Palutena asked him, "Collin?"

The masked Collin turned to Palutena and took heavy breaths without a word. She then asked, "What did she do to you?"

A smile overcame Medusa's hideous face in the background just over the balcony. The snakes of Medusa's hair continued to surround both Collin and Palutena, but there was still no response from the masked Centurion.

Instead he turned his head and took a glance at Medusa.

From behind a column, Pit quietly wondered out loud, "What is wrong with you father?" He stayed knelt down peaking out to his father and the balcony above.

Pit's quiet was about to be disrupted as he felt something curl around his arm. It was another red worm with wings that gripped to him. The worm caused him to let out a shriek that could be heard by everyone. Medusa's head whipped around and her serpent hair glared down to the young boy as he shook off the worm from his arm.

The worm was undaunted and continued to hug onto his right arm. Pit soon began to grab at the worm's slick body and look into its single eye. The hideous white eye of the worm gave a few blinks out of reflex as it tried to crawl its way further to Pit's head.

With its slick body, Pit could not hold onto the worm with his left hand. The worm continued to advance on Pit's mouth until its small wings were stuck on the grip of Pit's hand. If Pit had a grip below the wings, the worm would have wrapped around his head and been in his mouth by now just as it had been with Collin.

After a moment, the worm fiercely jerked itself forward and would whip the front half of its body toward Pit's head in an attempt to free itself from Pit's grip. That was when a strong arm with a gauntlet grabbed the upper half of the worm's body.

It was a grip so sturdy that the worm winced in pain as it was slowly pulled away from Pit. Collin was the one that had his hand around the worm's slick body and he first looked the worm in the eye.

When Pit saw that it was his father that had the worm in his grasp, he let it go. Collin then held the red worm next to his helmet and while Pit tried to look into his father's eyes, he could not see within the visor of the helmet.

The eye of the worm stopped its focus on Collin and looked back to Pit. With terror on Pit's face, Collin released the worm from his grasp. The slick red worm leapt at Pit and he fell to his back. Somehow Pit was able to catch the worm's small wings between his sandals.

Still on his back, Pit kept the worm at bay away from his face. Pit then wrapped his hands around the slimy worm only to have it violently try to yank itself from his grip.

Pit yelled, "Father help me!" However, Collin stood there and looked down upon him from within his golden helmet. Knowing that he was on his own, Pit had to act fast or grow weak from the struggle against a worm as tall as his torso.

Palutena was helpless to save a mortal that was being tested. She could not even escape the jaws of the snakes that held her in place.

As for Medusa, she eagerly awaited the result of the struggle between Pit and the red worm.

Pit's hands crept up the worm's long body toward its head as he continued to grip the snake's body with his sandals. Soon enough, Pit's hands were next to the eye of the worm. A moment later his hands were wrapped around the creature's white eye.

His hands slipped along the slick membrane that covered the worm's eye, but he cupped his hands and squeezed them together. After more might than the boy had ever mustered before, the worm's eye collapsed in a gush of horrific white fluid that doused Pit's chest.

He uttered, "Ew! Gross!" After that was said, he tossed the worm's limp body to the side and rolled over to his hands and knees; trying to catch his breath.

Medusa hissed with an aggravated voice, "Take him!" Collin snatched his own son from off of the ground with his strong arms and threw him over his broad shoulder. Medusa cackled as she watched the boy struggle, "I would turn this young one into stone, but he shall be taken to my deepest darkest dungeon and used to feed my Shermum snakes!"

She then bellowed a hearty laugh as Palutena stood there in dismay surrounded by the serpents in Medusa's hair. Medusa then turned her hideous single eyed gaze to Palutena and quietly told her with a hiss in her voice, "Now that I have you, I will make you watch as I wipe the mortal plane clean and annihilate your precious people before I imagine a fate so twisted it will make what you did to me look like a beauty treatment!"

As Medusa released a cackle that echoed through the palace of Palutena, Collin turned around with his boy over his shoulder and proceeded to walk to the entrance to follow Medusa's order.


	6. Chapter 6: The Underworld

CHAPTER 6: THE UNDERWORLD

CHAPTER 6: THE UNDERWORLD

Within the confines of the deepest darkest dungeons of Medusa's underworld, Collin continued to carry Pit further and further into the darkness. The only light came from a lit torch that Collin carried in his hand. Pit continued to kick, scream and cry, but not from the horrific terrors that surrounded them, but the fact that his father was not his father any longer.

Collin was controlled by Medusa just as the underworld was. He was still just as fearless as ever, but as one of Medusa's servants he had nothing to fear. The snakes that crept at his feet did not worry him, nor did the bottomless pits that he leapt over.

After a full day's journey of endless travel, Pit was asleep over his father's shoulder. That was until Collin dropped his torch to the black ground at his feet.

There was a handle on the ground and a massive wooden door made of extremely dense wood. Collin reached to the ground and took the handle in his powerful grasp. That is when Pit woke up from his brief slumber.

He continued to kick and scream against his father's body to get released. The handle was yanked to reveal an opening covered with three bars of metal forged by unholy hammers.

Collin then stood tall once again and grabbed Pit at the sides. He pulled his son off of his shoulder and took one last look at his teary eyed boy. Collin's golden helmet gleamed in the flickering torch light and Pit asked his father, "Please snap out of it." He clutched his father's hands on his waist.

There was nothing to stop Collin from letting go of his only son and Pit fell through the bars of the abyss beneath of him.

However, Pit kept a grasp on the bars as Collin almost had the job done. Pit grit his teeth and mustered the strength in his little body to swing back and forth. He eventually swung his feet up and wrapped them around one of the bars.

With his body wrapped around one of the bars, that is when Collin's golden sandal stomped onto Pit's body. Pit's fingers slipped off the bars, and he did a back flip falling into the abyss below where he landed flat on his chest.

On the ground Pit's hair draped over his face and he let out a brief cough followed by a tear that came off of the right side of his face and hit the black ground.

Like a halo high above him, the torch light shined light down upon him. Not enough light to reach Pit, but make a black silhouette of his body on the ground. It was almost beautiful in a hopeless sort of way.

The torch was then dropped from the opening above and slammed into the ground next to Pit with a violent bounce that spattered the fire. As for the opening above, it was never closed.

Pit first rose to his hands and knees and carefully looked around the darkened room to see that there were no doors. He was in a dungeon of the underworld. The only way out was the opening high above his head.

There was nothing around him but black rock that gleamed from slight dampness and slick water that covered the lower level. He grabbed the torch from off of the ground and used it to look around as he wiped the dirt from his face. His toga was dirty and more dingy than it had ever been before.

In the glow of the torchlight, Pit soon found that he was not alone. Well rather he discovered that he would be joining his company soon in one way or another. There were skeletons here and there. Some even had feathers around their bodies indicating they were once angels. Some even had their skulls or bones smashed, most likely from the fall that Pit had just endured.

One had insects crawling all over it, because it was the most recent skeleton, still with bits of meat on its body. The insects all scattered, because they had never seen light before.

Pit went to the center of the dungeon where he could be beneath of the triple barred opening. He then set himself down on two knees and put the torch down in front of him. With his hands clasped he prayed, "You probably have not heard a prayer come from the underworld, but mighty gods above the clouds, I need help. My father is under the control of Medusa; Palutena is in the clutches of Medusa; my friend Anna might have my same fate, I need the knowledge to save them all."

Instead of strength, Pit had told them he needed the wisdom. Against a towering Medusa, or goddess in general, strength would never matter. Nor would skill matter against Medusa's power, the only power Pit could hope to have was knowledge.

After a moment of waiting, Pit heard his response from above. A smile grew on his face as he looked up above him. He belted out, "Oh thank you gods above! I will pay a tribute once I reach a temple in the over world!"

He was overjoyed, however, his prayers were not answered, and things just got worse for him. The sound that he heard soon dropped from the opening above. He could see shadows of something around the opening that was coming in.

Then the sounds of something dropping could be heard, as Pit was pelted with thin blue snakes from above. In a panic he freaked out and ran away from the center of the room into the darkness of the dungeon.

That was a mistake on his part, the torch was still in the center of the room and he could see the thin blue snakes filling the room. He was in the darkness where he could not see anything. Instead he kept his focus on the snakes. They were Shemums with tiny blue fleshy wings. Normally, Shemums were no threat for a mortal man, however, Pit was younger, and he was only a boy. A boy terrified of snakes.

The snakes stayed in the light of the fire, but avoided the flames. Meanwhile, Pit remained in the darkness where the flesh eating insects and spiders lurked.

Pit's eyes grew wide in the darkness as he could feel the insects climb him. He let out a scream and ran into the light of the torch where it could be seen that a devilish red centipede was on his back.

In the torchlight, the snakes found him and hissed his direction. The dozen snakes that surrounded the light each opened their blue hoods and opened their jaws.

Meanwhile, Pit was oblivious as he danced around trying to shake the centipede from his back before it bit him. Once the centipede flew off to the ground, it skittered away. Relief came over Pit's face and he whipped the panic from his face as he said, "Whew!"

Once he turned around he saw dozens of snakes facing him with their blue hoods open and their tiny blue wings shaking. In an instant, four of them lunged at Pit with their jaws open and Pit fell into the darkness behind him.

In a sound of snake hisses and wing rattles, Pit struggled against them. The other Shermums followed the sounds as they moved around the darkness with Pit's screams.

Just then, a high pitched voice shouted down, "Hey Ikarus!" A bow was thrown down into the dungeon and landed near the torch. It was a bow and sprang up from the ground and ended up getting attacked and bit by the Shemums that surrounded it.

Pit rushed from the darkness with his arm extended outward as he reached for the bow. There were Shemums everywhere, and Pit's body had a pair of snake bites on it.

He grabbed the bow and faced off against the dozen snakes that surrounded the torchlight. Then he realized that the bow felt different, like it was made out of serpent skin. Pit looked down to the bow to discover he grabbed one of the Shemums with it.

The Shemum in Pit's grasp hissed a ghastly sound as Pit used his bow to defend against the pit full of snakes. Each snake would lunge at him and attack with their jaws open. Pit would quickly position the bow so the snakes would bite onto the bladed edges of the bow. He did this all while still holding a Shermum in his grasp with its hood open.

Pit spun his body around to slice off the hooded heads of the Shemums that surrounded him. With sweat forming on his body, he screamed out, "Thanks for the bow; now where are the arrows?"

The quiver dropped from the hole in the ceiling and battered Pit on the head. He was driven to the ground where the snake that was wrapped around his bow, began to wrap itself around Pit's body.

He tumbled and rolled to get out of the snake's grasp. Pit did a summersault to pick up his bladed blue bow and used it to slice through more of the snakes all while having a Shemum wrapped around him.

The snake positioned itself behind Pit's body and hissed just before it bit down into Pit's bare shoulder. There was a girlish scream from the young boy who then threw the snake off into the darkness.

He grabbed the bow and took the quiver from off the ground to grab an arrow. Inside of the finely crafted quiver was a single copper arrow that Pit used to defeat one of the snakes. The arrow was shot right through the snake's hooded neck and disappeared into the darkness.

As for the snake that Pit had thrown off of him, it came back with a viscious lunge out of the darkness. However, it was covered with a horrifying array of beetles, and insects covering it.

Pit was able to dodge the Shemum's attack only to see it quickly wither away as it was eaten alive by the insects. That was not Pit's concern, he still had more snakes to contend with, but at least now he had arrows.

More and more snakes fell from the opening at the top of the pit. However, Pit took quick aim with his holy bow and fired copper arrows through the head and neck of the snakes. Each snake would hiss as an arrow was lanced through its vital points.

For each copper arrow that was spent, a new one magically materialized inside of Pit's quiver. It was just as Palutena told him; there was a limitless supply and that is what needed right then.

In great dismay, Pit screamed, "There's just too many of them!" It was true, because each snake that would get defeated, two more would drop in to join the fray.

That is when Pit was saved, but not by divine intervention. Instead it was a pair of feet that slipped under Pit's arms and began to lift him off of the ground.

Pit looked up to see his holy savior, but soon realized to keep firing arrows. Snakes continued to drop from the ceiling and passed by Pit and his savior as they departed the dark chamber.

The ascension out of the pit was slow and Pit wondered out loud, "Should I start flapping my wings?"

"No," said a high pitched voice, "But you can exercise more and weigh less." It was Toodles that saved Pit; well not saved at this point, because the poor androgynous angel was still grunting as it carried Pit upward.

The yellow mop of hair on Pit's head was draped over his face, which caused Pit to ask, "Can you see where you're going?"

The angel uttered, "I go up!" The wings flapped double time to raise Pit's body; they could barely support Toodle's own weight let alone a human boy's weight.

After a moment in the air, Pit's feet were out of the reach of the snakes. They tried to lunge, but snakes were only meant to attack forward and not upward.

Toodles screamed in a panic, "Yah!!" Directly in front of his baby face was a Shemum with its hood open. The Shemum was coiled on a ledge and shook its wings with a frightening rattle. Any further moment would cause it to strike, so Toodles merely kept his wings flapping to stay the same level.

But then a copper arrow was launched through the snake's head and staked it into the rock wall behind the Shemum.

Toodles wiped the look of dismay off of its face with the brush stroke of an arm over its yellow haired head, "Whew!" The angel then flew the two of them out of the pit to safety.

Once they were out of the pit, it was dark and cold. Neither one of them could see in the darkness outside of the pit. Toodles spoke loudly with a high voice, "I have a bright idea!"

The body of Toodles became luminescent and shined brightly to reveal two large pots of snakes. There was one at each side of the opening in the ground to the pit below.

This of course meant there were more snakes around the area. Once they were out of the pit, Toodles dropped to the ground huffing and puffing. The angel then uttered, "Can't fly any… more."

With snakes dropping out of the giant pots, Pit said, "Come on!"

Toodles however was content to lie on the ground and utter, "No, leave me, go on without me!"

As one of the Shemum got close to the two of them, Pit was forced to take aim and launch an arrow through the snake's head.

Toodles continued to huff and puff as he said, "I was sent here so you can go save Palutena."

Shock overcame Pit, and he turned behind him with glee. "Palutena," Pit asked with a twinge of giddiness.

"Palutena," confirmed the angel, who then added, "Get going Icarus, and I'll catch up."

Pit shot another Shemum with an arrow and said, "If you are still alive!"

Toodles continued to catch its breath and uttered, "Oh yeah. I will be alive. I am a pretty bad dude."

With a curious expression, Pit wondered, "What is a dude? I thought you were an angel?"

"I am an angel," said Toodles, who then added, "But you've never seen me with a harp. When I get going, I'm an enchanter that you wouldn't want to mess with."

Pit then grabbed the angel by the toga and began to drag the short angel away from the Pit. He then told Toodles, "Come on. I am not leaving you behind." Pit then added, "You are the only light that I have!"

In Toodle's luminescence Pit could see the ravaged underworld in its dismay. There were broken columns everywhere. There were strange grounds and terrifying rock formations in the shape of beautiful women with twisted bodies and hag like faces.

The only plant life that they could see were purple trees that towered over head. Each tree had thin bodies shaped like a lance. From all around them were echoes of laughter along with screams of pain.

This was the underworld, complete with pits of bubbling lava and gushes of steam that came from the ground. High above them at the ceiling of each chamber was something unseen by the two as the trekked their way through the underworld.

They were being watched carefully and closely by single eyed creatures. Their gaze could see in the darkness and their mutated red tentacles clung to the ceiling almost like the roots of a plant. They watched Pit as he dragged Toodles through the ash covered valley below.

These mono eyed creatures were the eyes of Medusa. She could see what they saw, and she waited to command them. The only warning that Pit and Toodles would have was hearing her cackle echo through the underworld.


	7. Chapter 7: Purification

CHAPTER 7: PURIFICATION

CHAPTER 7: PURIFICATION

Within an underworld full of creatures, there were but two people; an angel named Toodles and a boy named Pit. The two of them began their ascension from the deepest pit by climbing a giant set of stairs. There were collapsed and ruined pillars on each side of them.

The boy Pit asked the angel, "Can you fly yet?"

The angel humbly tried to flap its wings slowly, but could not fly. The angel shook its blonde mop of a head left to right with a grimace on its face. Toodles then uttered, "Angels fear to fly here. There is no telling what we would bump into."

In a world of darkness, the angel's body was the only light. The torches had burnt out eons before when the world was carved by Medusa. This was her realm that she had created with her twisted mind.

Pit looked to the giant staircase to see that it not only climbed upward, but then it arched over the heads of the pair and looped upside down. It was impossible for them to climb, so they were forced to find an alternate way when the stairs began to loop.

As they worked their way upward, Toodles uttered, "You were called upon to save Palutena." The angel hoisted itself up a black rock and then added, "You must sacrifice everything else to save her."

Pit never refused the duty to save Palutena, when he asked the angel, "How am I supposed to do that? My father was the best warrior the mortal world had and now he is under control of that heartless snake-clops Medusa."

Toodles continued to climb behind Pit and explained, "You're the only one left and you have to be the one to save her."

Pit's ascension stopped as he looked down at the luminescent angel. He asked, "What do you mean the only one?"

The angel elaborated, "The Centurions have all been turned to stone and when I returned to Palutena's palace, the other angels had all been turned to harpies."

In the mind of Toodles, it remembered flying into the palace. That is where he found Medusa boasting her power. She commanded, "These darlings will now become the scourge of men. They will now lure them in to their doom with tales of riches and bait them with their bodies."

The voice of Toodles overcame its memories, "The sheets fell off their bodies to reveal hideous talons for feet and fangs beneath their lips. They're ravenous."

Pit continued to climb and sweat as he toted his wings of wax and quiver with him. He wondered, "How can a mortal beat a goddess?"

"They can't," said Toodles, only to add, "She can only be purified of evil, just as she can become corrupted and wicked from goodness."

The boy said to the angel, "I am no cleric. I have no rod or staff to cleanse a soul. The most I have is a weekly bath!"

Toodles retorted, "You are pure of heart, and that is one of the things needed to purify her. Not even any of the Centurions could do that. Their souls have all been tainted and soiled from battle."

Pit wondered, "What of Palutena? Why didn't she simply cleanse her sister's soul?"

"Because she too is impure," said Toodles with a chuckle, before it added, "She tests the souls of mortals just as Medusa does. Palutena dries their crops and makes them thirst for water. The light she shines upon the over world can kill mortals just as anything else, but the light is slower, so her corruption is far slower than Medusa's."

The boy continued to climb the rock ledges as he listened. They were both completely oblivious to the fact that there were still creatures that looked upon them from the darkness. Red tentacles clung to the ceilings high above them.

Meanwhile, in Palutena's palace, Medusa had her working eye closed. Over her missing eye was a draped piece of white cloth. Her snakes hissed next to her hideous face.

She meditated and could see everything that her mooneyes of the underworld could see. In the darkness she could see Pit and Toodles. Her anger rose as she watched their escape.

Soon enough her mouth slowly opened to reveal her twin fangs. Her forked tongue protruded from her mouth and she hissed in anger.

Toodles told Pit, "There are three sacred treasures that you would need."

Pit quickly wondered, "To purify her?"

"To stay alive," exclaimed Toodles, before it added, "The first is a mirrored shield to protect you from the gaze of Medusa. Second is an arrow of light to strike the darkness from her. Finally is a pair of wings from a Pegasus."

As the two continued their climb, Toodles continued, "Each is hidden in a fortress; the fortress of the angels in the sky, the fortress of mortals in the over world and the fortress of demons here in the underworld."

Pit told Toodles, "Lead the way."

However, Toodles had another idea, "I'm just here to deliver the message. You're the one that has to go carry it out. It's your destiny."

After hearing that, Pit sat on a ledge and looked back into the abyss he had just crawled from. He turned his head to look at the brightly lit angel. "If that is what Palutena wants," he said, only to hear Toodles retort, "You think Palutena sent me?"

Pit uttered, "Who else would?"

Toodles coyly asked, "I'm asking you; who else would?" It then added as it pointed with a finger upward, "Get going Icarus."

The boy replied, "Don't call me that." He then turned and began to climb up the rock as the angel lounged on the ledge.

Pit's arm then grabbed the angel's toga and pulled it up. Pit stated, "Come on. I need a light!"

Medusa could see everything and she hissed a low tone, "Attack."

From the ceiling came four creatures. Their red tentacles released the ceiling and they streamed through the air down to Pit. The first three were dodged and the third bounced off of the rock wall before it was shot by an arrow from Pit.

In the light the two of them could see they were attacked by large eyes that could blink with a freakish red membrane. They had no body or face, just four short tentacles.

As the fourth mooneye whizzed by it snatched Toodles from the rock with its tentacles. The angel cried out, "Help me Icarus!"

The angel was no match for the large eye that zoomed back toward the ceiling of the chamber. Pit could see the angel's light growing smaller and smaller, so he took aim with his bow.

With the release of the bow string, Pit sent a copper arrow into the air after them. Fortunately for both the mooneye and Toodles, the arrow missed and struck a stalactite.

The pointed hunk of rock that draped from the ceiling began to shudder and tremble unnoticed to the mono eye. Then from out of the sky, the mooneye was pierced by stone and driven through the cavern toward the bottom.

Toodles was still on the grasp of the tentacles and taken with the mooneye to its final resting place. Pit's gaze was on the stalactite as he had another arrow ready. He quickly launched the arrow, and then sent a second one toward the stalactite.

The first arrow speared a tentacle of the mooneye and the second arrow lanced the stalactite, causing it to whirl end over end. Toodles was flung from the grasp of the dead mooneye as more of the eyes flew toward Pit.

Toodles was flung, but not nearly far enough to reach the rock wall of the cavern. Risking his life, Pit leapt out from off of the wall and grabbed onto Toodles with his arm wrapped around the angel's body.

As they plunged through the air, Toodles screamed, "Did you think about this before you did it?"

The words, "Uh no," came from Pit's mouth as Toodles continued to scream, "Then why did you do it?"

They continued to plunge as they screamed out of fright. They went deeper and deeper back into the abyss that they had just crawled out of, but then they were snatched from death by a pair of mooneyes.

The terrifying eye that had a grasp on Pit looked down upon him as it sailed upward to the top of the cavern where it had come from. Toodles was carried away as well, but to a different arrow. Each one of Pit's limbs were held by a tentacle of the mono eye as Pit screamed in terror at how hideous the eye was.

The eye merely blinked and continued to look back at Pit. The mooneye felt no fear or had no expression of glee; it was strangely devoid of emotion, probably because it had no face to show emotion.

Higher and higher they went, until Pit and Toodles were so far apart that there was no light for Pit to see. There were only slimy tentacles that gripped Pit's limbs. Little did Pit know that he was in a den of the mooneyes. The ceiling of that particular cavern is where they cultivate, socialize and feed through their tentacles.

He was surrounded by dozens of them that all looked at him in the darkness. Pit struggled and screamed out, "This is the weirdest thing ever!" If he dared fight back against the tentacles he would just plummet from a ceiling so high that it may as well have been the sky itself.

Suddenly Pits screams subsided as he heard harp music. The sounds gently came his way and filled the entire cavern. Beautiful and harmonious strums that were absolutely soothing and told Pit there was no need to worry.

Pit was in a daze, and he quietly wondered in his mind, "Is this a dream? Are these things playing the harp?" They did have tentacles after all, so they could play instruments.

Then Pit's head rolled to the side and he looked over to see a bright light. It was a ball of luminescent light that began to light up the ceiling of the cavern to reveal dozens of mooneyes.

The eyes merely watched the ball of light and their irises adjusted to the brightness. Pit however tried to cover his eyes from the luminescence. It was too bright for a boy that was in the dark for nearly a minute.

The strums grew louder as they got closer. Pit was forced to wonder who was making the strums. He tried to look, and despite how bright the light was, his eyes got used to it once again.

It was Toodles on the harp; the angel was there flapping its wings and each of the monoeyes began to tremble and wobble as they clung to the ceiling. The harp continued to play beautiful and charming music that was obviously making the mooneyes gyrate and wobble to the sounds.

Eventually Toodles was right next to the mooneye that held Pit in its grasp. The mooneye was pulsating, until it popped; not into a puddle of goop or jelly, but it popped like a balloon with a mallet in it.

Pit grabbed the mallet and began to plummet. The other mooneyes began to pop like balloons as well revealing sturdy mallets inside of them. It was like a celebration with the red balloons popping all around them.

Once they had all ruptured, Toodles zoomed through the air down to save Pit. However, the little angel was too late. Even though Toodles fell with all of its might with its blonde mopped head forming a rounded bullet, Toodles was no match for gravity.

Pit hit the ground with an "umph!" His body was then rolled like a rag doll down a slight slope and disappeared into a doorway. An iron door slammed shut with Toodles on the outside.

The angel tried to open the door and screamed out, "Come on Icarus! Open the door it's scary out here!" However scary it was outside of the door, Pit was the one worse off inside of the room.

Pit stood up groggy and in a daze from his fall and the harp music. He checked over his body and his wings. He looked below his toga and said, "Legs; check." He dusted off his arms, "Arms; check." Then he felt his neck, "Head; still screwed on."

He was too busy checking himself to notice the fact that there were more foes lurking inside of the door. They mysteriously began to appear one after another.

Pit checked his wings, "Still there." Then when Pit looked around the room, he saw the shadows of foes inside of the room with him. He reached to his side and noticed that something was missing as he said, "Bow; missing."


	8. Chapter 8: The Den of Specknose

CHAPTER 8: THE DEN OF SPECKNOSE

CHAPTER 8: THE DEN OF SPECKNOSE

Torches lit the multi tiered room that Pit found himself in. He could see foes materialize out of the walls and while they could not see him, they sure could smell him.

Giant noses the size of Pit's small body came out of the walls. Each of the two dozen nostrils sniffed around at the scent of a boy in their trap. Then a pair of eyes materialized for each of the dozen noses.

Pit was alone in the room against a dozen foes without his bow. From each nostril came long hairs similar to tentacles that brushed along the walls and other darkened surfaces.

In fear, Pit coiled his body down into a dark corner next to the doorway. The first nose to have materialized swept over the wall with the hair from its nostrils. The second nose dashed by Pit's head and the third nose traveled along the ground to Pit's feet.

That third nose alerted the others with a pig like snort. Its eyes hovered forward away from its nose to look upon Pit's body. Pit knew that the quirky creatures must have been hard of seeing. He held his hand out to the creature's eyes and watched them slowly get cross eyed to focus on his hand.

He waved his other hand and the pair of eyes were slow to focus. Pit wondered, "You can't see me can you?" All dozen creatures could smell him though and they swirled around his location.

Pit however remained in the darkness away from the torch light as he wondered out loud, "You can't hear me either can you?" There were no ears, just a pair of eyes along with a nose.

The specknoses swirled around his vicinity until he put his face out of the darkness. All of the eyes of the noses focused slowly on him. They could still see him even if they had to be close up.

They began to swirl around in the room in order to gain speed and swoop down to attack Pit. He dodged them two by two and would run from one dark spot of the room to the next. After he had ran out from three dark spots, he commented, "I bet the next creature will be all ears!"

He disappeared into the darkness and the specnoses lined up in front of the door to block it. Their comical round eyes contorted into angry eyes. The majority of them waited for Pit, while the others continued to sniff out for Pit.

With a line of seven specknoses guarding the door, Pit muttered to himself, "I could probably shoot three of those shnozes at once if I had my bow."

As for the noses, they talked to one another through squeaks and pig snorts. They plotted to find Pit and argued amongst one another.

The specknose conversation ended abruptly as the nose at the front of the pack asked in an common language that Pit could understand, "Answer our riddle and you may pass."

Pit asked, "How can I answer when you have no ears to hear?" It was a valid question.

The specknose that spoke for them asked, "What has a single arm and a head that cannot be reasoned with." With each word, its tentacle like nose hairs waved to show that it was indeed speaking.

Pit screamed out, "That's easy! It's a mallet!" Yes, that was the answer; however, Pit said it from the darkness.

There was no response from any of the noses, so he yelled it louder, "It's a mallet!" Pit wondered in a whisper, "Maybe they are hard of hearing too?" In an even louder shout at the top of his lungs, Pit screamed, "It's a mallet!"

Pit stepped into the light once again and yelled, "It's a mallet!" The entire array of noses dove at Pit, because they were in the light. That was their trap to bait Pit into the light. They dove at him, and some of the specknoses guarded the dark spots of the room.

With fear, he cowered in the center of the room as the specnoses swirled around him. Pit kept screaming, "It's a mallet!" Each time he would say it, he'd have to dodge another giant nose that tried to batter into him.

Eventually Pit took the red mallet from his side and smashed into the nostrils of one specknose. It rotated and flew uncontrollably into another one of the giant noses.

The eyes of the lead specknose transformed to anger as it snort and wheezed the others into a frenzy. All of the noses swirled in the air and dove at Pit. He rolled, jumped and ducked underneath of the strange attackers.

He screamed, "Is it a mallet;" and whacked another one of them. The specknose spun and disappeared into the wall. Pit struck another one of them that flew away leaving one of its eyes. The nose disappeared into the floor and the eye vanished without a trace.

Pit held out the mallet with both of his hands and readied it next to his shoulders. The other specknoses panicked, some of them disappeared into the walls while others humorously bumped into one another as they tried to flee.

In a furious dash, Pit ran into the pack of specknoses with a load angry scream. It was just a tease, he did that to scatter the specknoses and force them to disappear into the walls. With laughter in his voice he screamed out, "Grrr!"

Pit had a smile on his face and a giggle as he turned around to look over the room. He boldly asked with a smile, "Anymore; maybe a mouth monster perhaps?" Then with a giggle, he screamed a cute, "Rawr!"

Then there was a pound at the door and Pit fell backward onto his tush. The mallet was dropped and lost as it fell down a tier into the darkness.

The door wasn't open, but there was a second pound at the front of it; a louder pound, with no voice behind it. With a shudder, there was a third pound at the door and a rattle at the handle that was a circular knocker.

Soon after the knocking and rattling subsided, the door happily opened to reveal the darkness outside. As for what had made the pound, it was either gone or hidden in the darkness.

Meanwhile, Medusa was not amused and the angry scowl on her face proved it. Her good eye opened and focused onto Palutena who was still being held by four snakes. The fanged lips of Medusa uttered to her sister, "That wasn't fair of you to help the mortal by offering up a riddle."

Palutena wondered with a mischievous smirk, "Who helped him? Do you think I did that?"

Medusa moved her face closer to Palutena and wondered, "What would happen if the snake hair that you gave me ripped your limbs off?" Palutena could smell the stench of Medusa's sulfurous breath.

Each of the four snakes took a tighter grip on Palutena's limbs, but she was still strong in the ugly face of evil. Palutena asked, "Is it fair of you to test a single mortal like this?"

Medusa's retort was, "If I could smash him like a bug I would, but I cannot outright smite mortals." The snakes of Medusa's hair began to pull at the limbs of Palutena.

Palutena's long blonde hair waved behind her as she felt the might of the large serpents. Palutena closed her eyes and mustered the words, "You cannot smite them, but you can turn them to stone."

With a cackle in her throat, Medusa bellowed, "That was your mistake sister, giving me a face so ugly that it would turn mortals to stone. Besides that, it does test the other mortals around them. Can those who have been turned to stone really be broken free of their bondage?"

Medusa yanked her head back and whirled her body around still holding Palutena high in the air. She then asked the blonde goddess, "Can you break free from yours?"

Collin could be seen behind Medusa's shoulder on the balcony as he shook his head no.

As for Pit, back in the underworld, it took him a moment to find Toodles. Pit cried out, "Toodles, my angry angel where are you?"

Even luminescent and lighting the path, Toodles cowered under a platform of brick. It was hidden, but not from Pit who heard Toodles whisper, "Shhhh…"

Pit looked up to see Toodles wedged between rock and the bright platform. He wondered, "What are you doing up there?"

"Quiet," yelled Toodles with a hush tone as it put its finger to its mouth before it added, "The reaper will hear you!" The angel then pointed upward to where the reaper was lurking in the darkness.

Pit was taken back by how terrifying it was to see the cloak flailing in a windless underworld. The reaper looked over the cavern without movement, without emotion and without an expression on its skeletal face. Instead it was ominous and imposing as it looked down into the abyss while gripping its sickle.


	9. Chapter 9: The Reaper

CHAPTER 9: THE REAPER

CHAPTER 9: THE REAPER

In the dim light that made nothing more than a shadowy face, he whispered to himself, "If I were not flesh and blood, I would not be afraid." The reaper continued to loom far over him from a platform high above Pit's head.

The reaper's hand gripped his sickle tighter and Pit was gripped in more fear than he had ever been before. Even in the presence of Medusa he was not as afraid or paralyzed with fear.

The stance of the reaper shifted as it began to turn around, but Pit's fear did not subside. The reaper was looking for him and had been sent from Medusa to steal his soul just as Pit had seen earlier.

Pit backed further into the darkness, while Toodles was still wedged safely between a rock and a hard place that was the platform. Toodles had heavy breaths as the reaper walked across the platform to the other side.

Every few steps the skeletal reaper would turn to look over its shoulder for anything living. The reaper's body would jerk to once side unexpectedly and Pit would quietly gasp.

Once the reaper was at the other side of the platform it looked down at the other side of the chamber below. This was Pit's moment to move, but he stayed cowered in fear. His words were hushed as he said, "I wish I had the metal armor of the centurions." Little did Pit know; that not even the armor would defend him from the incredible power of the reaper.

Also little did he know that lurking in the darkness behind him were monoeyes that were awakened. Their bodies were shrouded in the blackness of the cavern until their eyes opened one by one. Each eye that would open would create another gleam from Toodle's magical illumination.

A pair of tentacles crept along the floor and slowly coiled around Pit's foot without touching him until they were ready. They suddenly snatched him and yanked him to the ground. In the darkness, the eyes looked dead and black with only a shine from their membranes.

Pit yelled with a scream that attracted the attention of the reaper high above. The reaper slowly crept along the platform back toward Pit's direction with its torn cloak flailing around its skeletal body.

After the yell, Pit clamored to the rock to escape the tentacles of the monoeyes. He kicked his feet, and shook off their short tentacles. Meanwhile, the reaper had returned to Pit's side of the platform.

Before the reaper could look over the side, Pit took a flying leap from the rock he was on. The reaper looked over into the dim light below to see nothing. At least it was nothing but a shadow until the four monoeyes took off after Pit.

The eyes hovered in pursuit of Pit as he was now below a cliff that had Toodles at the top. The reaper knew Pit was beneath and looked over the platform to find him.

Pit continued to evade the swooping monoeyes as he leapt from one rock ledge to the other. He aimed for one mono eye and shot it through with an arrow causing the effect of bursting a balloon. Nothing was inside, because Medusa had created the creature using her powers.

The boy kept moving up the rock ledges higher and higher, until the three monoeyes swooped by him. When Pit turned around he saw the black as night cloak of the reaper standing before him. The tattered cloak had ripped edges that ripples and caressed the platform and the face of the rock wall.

He suddenly squint his eyes and covered his own mouth to keep from screaming. The reaper was larger up close. To a small boy, the reaper was taller than any man he had ever seen, but fortunately for Pit, he was facing the back of the ghastly foe.

With a shocking jerk of the reaper's body it turned its head around to look right at Pit with its hollow eye sockets! Pit let out a horrific scream that echoed through the cavern waking every creature within.

Eyes opened up from high above, as the echo went up the cavern to the top. As for the reaper itself, the long skeletal arm flew out to its side with its sickle ready to attack as it ran toward Pit.

The boy was left with nothing to do but to retreat in an undignified fashion. He fell backward away from the platform down to the next ledge below where Toodles was.

He sat up to look at his angelic fellow and said, "I think I wet my toga!"

Toodles let out a sigh and said, "Good choice to save Palutena."

There was no time to dwell on that, because the reaper stood lurched over the platform looking down at both Pit and Toodles. Instead of continuing to pursue, the reaper parted its arms wide and sent out four flying reapettes.

The tiny skeletal and cloaked reappettes flew in a spiral through the air toward Pit and the angel. Pit fell down to another ledge to avoid the four of them as they tried to grab his soul and yank it out. Toodles however went upward and flapped its wings high in the air.

As Toodles hovered in the air, it spun around to watch the reapettes shoot past. When Toodles fully turned around full circle, it came face to face with the reaper that greeted with the swipe of its sickle.

Toodles dropped like a stone to avoid the sickle, but the reaper spun around and gave another slice of its sickle at Toodle's tiny feet. The angel pulled up its own feet to avoid the second swipe only to have the reaper come down with an overhead swipe with its sickle.

The blade tore through the air with a terrifying scream from the reaper. Pit looked up to see feathers everywhere. There was no Toodles, and Pit cried out, "Where are you?"

The reaper looked over its shoulder and down to Pit, just before the four reapettes dove from a high point in the air down to the boy. Each reapette laughed and giggled at the fun of their attack as Pit continued to look where Toodles went to.

As for the four reapettes, Pit rolled out of the way of the first one so it dove down into the abyss. The next one he tumbled to avoid and that reapette disappeared into the darkness. The last two reapettes were shot with copper arrows through their tiny bodies.

The reaper hissed a ghastly sound as Pit had destroyed two of its reapettes. The other two reapettes curved their momentum to fly back up and out of the darkness.

Pit kept moving to dodge the reapettes as they reached out for him. Not even the monoeyes were that intense to get the boy.

With a yell, Pit wondered, "Where are you?" Pit then jumped in the air when he heard a yell, "Right behind you Icarus!"

The boy held his heart and said, "Don't do that!"

Meanwhile, the angel had no sympathy, "It's pretty obvious where I was, I am a glowing ball of light right now."

Pit wondered, "Can't you play the harp and charm the reaper?"

Then with a sigh Toodles revealed his small harp. They both looked to see that strings were broken and the frame is bent. Toodles then asked, "What do you think?"

With a fierce shove, Pit pushed the angel away from him and fell backward to the ground himself as a reapette zoomed by. Pit could hear a giggle next to him. It was a reapette that hovered near his head.

The crazed reapette mustered some strength before it dove down at Pit's head. However, the reapette's body was bashed when a broken harp was thrown into it. The reapette was caught behind the strings of the harp and was sent spiraling into the depths of the cavern.

Toodles was aggravated and let out an angry tone, "Mortals, always gotta be saved by divine intervention."

Pit took aim at the last reapette as he wondered, "I thought you couldn't intervene when a mortal is being tested?" With the launch of an arrow, another reapette was split in two at the waist.

Toodles fluttered its wings to hover at Pit's shoulder as the angel uttered, "Gods and goddesses cannot interfere, but I'm not a god or a goddess."

Pit turned to Toodles and asked, "So what are you?"

The androgynous Toodles fluttered around Pit and said, "I'm a bad dude you don't want to mess with mortal."

Suddenly the sickle of the reaper came down and nearly sliced Pit in half from top to bottom. Pit stepped back with a gasp before he looked at the reaper and said, "No, that's a bad dude."

The reaper readied another swipe of its sickle and Pit rolled underneath of the blade. The cloak flailed in Pit's face and blinded him.

With the turn of its body, the reaper looked for Pit, but the clever boy continued to remain behind the reaper. Whenever the reaper turned, Pit remained lost in the cloak's black cloth.

As for Toodles, the angel fluttered away from the reaper's attacks.

The reaper's attacks subsided, as long as Pit remained hidden, but he couldn't remain hidden forever from the ghastly soul catcher. Pit was able to sneak away from the reaper up the platform and ran away.

With his back to the reaper, Pit never saw the reaper loomed over him. Just as fast as Pit ran, the reaper followed, climbing up rocks and towering over the boy.

Pit panted to catch his breath and doubled over. When his body turned around, he saw the reaper with its arms up. The sickle sliced by Pit who was screaming in fear. The reaper continued to swipe its sickle slicing through the air at Pit's head, then his feet.

Meanwhile, the three monoeyes had returned. They dove from the air high above. Each one of their eye lids was down and looked angry.

With a bound and a leap, Pit got far enough to steady his bow and aim it at the reaper. He fired one arrow straight at the reaper's chest. The arrow disappeared into the back cloak.

Then the reaper charged again at Pit with a hideous shriek that filled the cavern. Pit stood steady even in the face of the reaper and fired an arrow straight into the skull of the reaper.

That did not stop the reaper though, even with an arrow in its skull, it continued to charge. Pit dove to all fours as the sickle came at his body. He crawled around the reaper's body as the reaper merely looked down to the boy.

The reaper held up its sickle and towered over the boy. Pit looked up while on fours, let out a scream and crawled between the reaper's legs into its cloak. The sickle swiped near the ground as Pit came out screaming in a panic with a white face, "Oh I don't ever wanna go back in there!"

That was a mere distraction to Pit, the fear of being inside of the reaper's cloak. One of the monoeyes swooped next to him and ended up hitting the rock ground and tumbled away. The other two mooneyes dove down and ended up colliding with the reaper.

There must have been skeletal feet beneath of the cloak, because the reaper began to topple. The reaper was off balance and stumbled backward to the edge of the rock cliff.

That was Pit's opportunity. He stood up, readied his bow and arrow. The reaper regained its composure, gripped its sickle and looked straight at Pit with its hollow eye sockets.

Before the reaper could come screeching at Pit again, he launched not one but several arrows into the skull of the reaper. One after another until there were five arrows stuck in the reaper's skeletal face.

There was no pain felt by the reaper, but it merely staggered backward until it took off with a tumble down into the blackness. Pit looked over the ledge into the shadowy abyss to see the reaper explode into dozens of reapettes.

Each one of them scattered and came screaming back up toward Pit. The boy fell to the ledge to avoid the reapettes as they giggled on their flight upward. Dozens of them flew by him and disappeared high into the cavern.

Pit took that time to take a short breather while he was on his back. His cheeks bubbled and he let out a big burst of air as his heart calmed.

Toodles quickly swooped in to meet with Pit. Once the two had gotten far enough away from the reaper, Toodles flopped down next to the boy and took a rest with him.

"Did you defeat the reaper? I wasn't watching," said Toodles only to hear Pit wonder, "Can it even be defeated?"

"Yes," uttered Toodles as it was seen with a chalice in its hand; Toodles then elaborated, "It can be defeated, but it's sustained by the power of Medusa, the reaper will just reform and return."

"I sure hope not," said Pit as he looked over to see Toodles about to drink from a chalice. He then asked, "Where did you find that?"

Toodles pointed and said, "Up there."

The boy Pit asked, "Do bad dudes even need to drink?"

The angel pointed its face toward Pit and beneath of its yellow hair, Toodles said, "No, but we sure do get thirsty."

It was just about to drink from the chalice, until Pit said, "Well humans do need to drink."

Toodles put the chalice down, shook its head and said, "And too often too. That's your problem Icarus you don't fly and you need to drink."

Pit asked, "So what's in that anyway?"

"I don't know," said Toodles.

Pit wondered, "You don't know what it is and you're going to drink it?"

Toodles then retorted, "Yes, its liquid, it has to be refreshing." The angel lifted its yellow banks up to look into the chalice to observe, "I think its milk."

Pit took a look through the glass chalice and said, "Milk isn't red."

"Depends on what animal its milked from," said the angel, before it elaborated, "Around here with these crazy creatures milk could be red." Toodles took another glance at the chalice and said, "Maybe milk, maybe lava. Either way it's pretty warm."

Pit politely asked, "Could I have a drink?"

Toodles pouted and said, "I save you over and over again, now you want me to give you my milk?"

"Yes," replied Pit, before he elaborated, "Mortals need it more than angels."

The angel handed Pit the chalice and said, "Don't ever say I give you anything."

Pit looked at it and took a sip, before he said, "It's good, tastes like fruit punch."

The angel sat next to him and said, "Glad you like it." Toodles then flapped one of its wings toward Pit and asked, "Want me to fan you too master?'

With a boyish giggle, Pit stated, "You never told me what you are."

Toodles muttered, "I'm not a slave; that's for sure." It then said, "You've asked me three times."

Pit kept sipping his drink as he stated, "And I will ask a fourth if you don't tell me. I want to know if you're a boy or girl?"

"A what with the what now?" asked Toodles only to hear Pit say, "Are you a boy or a girl?"

Toodles replied, "I'm an angel you're a mortal.'

"But are you a boy angel," wondered Pit, "or a girl angel?"

The angel wondered to Pit, "Can't you tell?"

After another swig of juice from the chalice Pit shook his head, "Not at all."

Toodles turned its androgynous head to Pit and commented, "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

Pit stood up invigorated after drinking from the chalice and he said, "I'll ask Palutena when I rescue her."

From high above in the cavern, the cackle of Medusa could be heard echoing through the darkness. Pit and the angel both looked up to see where the laughter was coming from.

The boy asked as he dropped the chalice to the ground, "Is Medusa close?"

Toodles replied, "Do you think I know?"

Pit commented, "You angels sure are cryptic."

The angel retorted, "We're only here to watch over you. We don't answer questions."

"I'll say," said Pit as he continued to look above him into the darkness of the cavern. Pit then told his angelic friend, "We need to get going."

The two of them climbed the cavern and continued to scale cliff after cliff. Jumping between platform to platform as they ascended.

Through an endless maze of tunnels above them was the underworld fortress that held not only the mirrored shield that Pit needed, but a terrible foe. The fortress was the gateway to the underworld, connecting the world of light with the world of darkness.

In Medusa's absence she had her prized pet watching the gateway. Lurking in the darkness were a two pairs of red glowing eyes that remained focused on the light.

The sounds of chains on the floor as the links were dragged could be heard by anyone in the room. There was another noticeable sound too; the sound of growls came from the darkness. These were sounds that Pit would hear if he was to ever make his escape from the underworld.


	10. Chapter 10: Commyloose

CHAPTER 10: COMMYLOOSE

CHAPTER 10: COMMYLOOSE

Inside Palutena's grand palace, the goddess of light still remained captive amongst the snake hair of her sister. The snakes had encroached around the entire palace, and had surrounded Palutena herself, shrouding her in darkness.

Only thin strips of light could get through the mass of giant snakes that surrounded her and held the goddess contained. As she was contained, the mortal world below grew dim as if covered by clouds.

The people on the mortal world couldn't look up to the grey skies that formed above. Instead those grey skies loomed over an entire society of stone statues.

Men, women, children, dogs, cattle and every other animal had been turned to stone. The world was grey and the green grass in the fields began to turn brown, while flowers wilted and died.

As for Palutena, she could feel her sister's heart beat through the snake scales that surrounded her. Her beautiful radiating light was contained in a den of scales

The only thought in Palutena's mind was of her mortal savior Pit. Palutena's heart beat solely for him, while her body grew cold contained by the snakes.

Palutena told Medusa in a tired daze, "Your tests are killing humanity."

While the face of Medusa couldn't be seen, her words echoed through the palace, "When humanity is dead, it will return to us." With a sly tone in her voice, she explained, "It was only a matter of time my sister. They are mortal after all. Not like us. Not eternal."

With a bold proclamation, Medusa uttered, "They are the ants on the carpet of my palace and my palace is everywhere." With a hint of cold joy in Medusa's voice, she told her sister, "And I am the spider that has you trapped."

Palutena spoke in a weary state, "You are only a blurry reflection from a pain of glass." Even tired, she then emphasized, "Have you seen a mirror lately?"

Medusa told her sister, "I am going to fix that."

"A cream won't cover your ugliness," uttered Palutena.

With a cackle that gently vibrated the den of snakes, Medusa was amused. However, she was amused at something else in her mind. She explained, "My poisonous glow will spread to empires that are unheard of and I seek to destroy them."

After a pause in her laughter, "And then," she said with a long hiss in her voice, "Father will come to stop me." She continued, "When you have no mortals left to care about; he will be the last thing that I crush and hide away like sweeping broken glass under a rug."

In a whisper, Palutena told her, "Pit will stop you."

"You hold this mortal in high regard," hissed Medusa.

Palutena retorted from the darkness of the snakes, "And you know why."

"Ah, but I do," said Medusa with a sly tone, "Which is why I'm taking precautions to ensure that no one can defeat me."

"In fact," said the snake haired goddess, "My guardian is seeing to it right now."

Within Medusa's palace in the underworld known as the fortress of demons, was a grand shield on a black pedestal high above the tiled marble floor. The only light in the room was a single beam of light that came from the tall roof. The single beam shined down to the shield and reflected off the gorgeous smooth surface and illuminated the floor.

In the light, a chain could be seen draped across the marble floor. The chain was tight and unmoving.

From out of the darkness a mushroom with feet and a blue head scurried across the tiled floor into the light. It was confused and stumbled. When the mushroom slowly postured itself to stand, it pattered its feed and rotated left then right. Finally it rotated left again to reveal a pair of eyes underneath the mushroom head.

Wham. A giant red paw came down and completely smashed the blue mushroom in the light. The chain made a rattle and in the reflection of the mirrored shield, an immense beast covered with red hair could be seen. It licked the floor with its large dog like head.

The fur on the beast was tall and then a second head appeared in the mirror's reflection to lick the other part of the mushroom from off its paw. Then something caught the beast's interest and it took off into the darkness.

The chain dragged out of the light and after a moment of the chain being in darkness, a massive set of jaws appeared and slammed around the mirrored shield and the pedestal. The black stone pedestal was cracked in half and was eaten with the shield by the beast.

Elsewhere in the Underworld, Pit continued his ascension with Toodles lighting the way. They had found themselves out of a lava cavern and into a different one.

Pit had his arms crossed trying to warm his shoulders as he uttered, "Why is it so cold?"

The entire cavern was covered with ice. Not just ice, but permafrost from millennia of being frozen. There were icicles dripping off of each ledge and Pit didn't want to touch them with his bare hands.

His angelic friend tried to rationalize, "Either Medusa breathed everything to ice or we're too high up from the lava that it gets cold."

Pit asked, "Doesn't heat rise?"

Toodles said, "Ad da da da. Who's the angel here? Palutena makes the light and it makes us all warm. Her light warms our skin, which warms our hearts and you mortals generate your own heat with your gasses that come out of you; your breath and otherwise."

Beneath Pit's feet were creatures frozen in the ice. Blue creatures usually found in oceans. The walls were made of rock covered with permafrost.

Pit wondered, "So what makes you light up?"

"I'm like a battery," explained Toodles, but Pit asked, "What's a battery?"

Toodles asked, "Do all mortals wonder questions like yours?"

"No," said Pit, "There are older mortals that just answer them better than you do."

"Their time isn't valuable," uttered Toodles in its high pitched voice.

Pit continued to climb the icy ledges as he gave his flying friend a strange look, "Why is your time valuable?"

In one of the walls was a creature that looked like it had died a terrible death. Tentacles from the creature were sprawled out along the wall, with a bluish purple hue. The creature's mouth was contorted and its fangs were everywhere with its body twisted in half.

Toodles fluttered down near Pit's face. The light was so bright that it hurt Pit's eyes when the angel answered, "See this light?"

"Yeah," said Pit.

"When I'm out of energy," Toodles explained, "No more light and only darkness." With a pause it uttered, "Got that mortal?"

Pit continued to climb, "Got it."

Toodles then fluttered away and said, "No more questions. We're just going to climb in awkward silence the rest of the time."

"But wait," said Pit, "One more question."

Toodles wondered, "Can't you find an oracle to ask?"

Pit asked, "Why do you answer with questions?"

Toodles retorted, "Was that your question?"

Pit gestured with his thumb to a wall at another frozen dead creature trapped in the wall as he questioned, "What are these things?"

Toodles fluttered above Pit and then swirled down and said, "Let's see."

Pit stood in front of the creature that had eight tentacles. Some frozen to the wall, others stretched out as if it was trying to get away.

Toodles looked to it and speculated, "Tentacles, but no eyes. So it is not a monoeye."

With his back turned to the creature, Toodles continued to examine it, "Looks like an octopus but it is not in one of Palutena's oceans. Hmmm. What could it be?"

Under the permafrost, a bluish purple membrane slid to the left of the creature's head to reveal a single black eye. Then a yellow pupil came from the left and looked directly at Pit.

Toodles screamed, "Commyloose!" The creature then erupted from the permafrost and broke away from the wall straight into Pit. They were both knocked to a lower platform of ice and Pit was covered in permafrost.

The creature used its tentacles to cling and not slide off the ledge. It postured its head and with the curve of its body, the creature had its arrow pointed head directed to Pit.

The boy stood up freezing and covered in the frost while the creature kept its pointed head directed to Pit. When Pit moved, the Commyloose posture its point at Pit.

Finally the creature lunged forward and pushed off to extend its tentacles as if a man using a spear. The first jab missed Pit, and the creature recoil its tentacles back to the icy platform.

It continued to lunge and recoil with Pit dodging as he scurried away. That was until Pit ran out of platform and was facing a dark abyss below.

There was a wall next to Pit that another black eye was seen after a membrane was pulled away. That Commyloose tore from the wall as well.

Toodles flew in and screamed, "Silly Icarus! Use your bow!"

Facing off against two Commyloose, Pit drew his bow and readied an arrow from his quiver. One of the Commyloose grabbed Pit's right leg with its tentacles coiled around him.

Pit staggered and fell to his butt before his body flopped over the edge of the platform. His bow and arrow had fallen into the darkness and Toodles yelled, "I'm on it!"

The angel plunged into the darkness, which left Pit alone in the dark with two octopus like creatures and their fangs around him. The light disappeared and Toodles was gone.

Pit was left hanging by his leg in the darkness, until Toodles eappeared from the other side of the platform and said, "Oh sorry! I forgot there's no light here!"

When he appeared again, Pit was coiled in bluish purple tentacles and yellow eyes looked upon him. Each Commyloose had wrapped two tentacles around each of Pit's arms. They were forcing Pit to slap himself in the face over and over again as he hung by a leg.

Toodles flew over as Pit screamed for help. The only help that the angel could give was, "Shoo! Shoo you things!"

Pit was still slapping himself as he yelled, "You're not helping!"

The twin Commyloose used their spear like heads to poke at Toodles to keep him away. The angle merely fluttered far away only to discover the other trick that the Commyloose had.

Ink, one of them shot a large spray of blue ink that doused Toodle's face and covered his eyes. The angel yelled, "I can't see!" Then the angel spiraled around and bumped in a wall that caused it to fall to the frost covered ground.

The Commyloose continued to point their heads at Toodles, but not jab at him. Their tentacles still controlled Pit, but while the were distracted, Pit used both fingers when he crossed his arms and poked into the large yellow eyes of the Commyloose.

They winced in pain and used their tentacles to bash Pit into the ice at the side of the platform twice. Then they flipped him off into the dark abyss below.

Pit was gone, disappeared as his screams echoed until they couldn't be heard anymore.

Toodles yelled out, "Where are you Icarus?" The angel held its hand forward still blind from the ink to the face. The two Commyloose pointed their heads at the angel who wondered, "Marco?"

After a moment, Toodles said, "You're supposed to say Polo!"

Behind Toodles another membrane opened up from beneath of the permafrost that covered the wall. Then a yellow eye came into focus and permafrost cracked from the mouth of another Commyloose.

Terrible fangs were behind Toodles as two Commyloose stood before the blind Toodles.

The angel muttered, "When nothing is certain…" Toodles then took to flight as the third Commyloose broke from the wall.

"Always fly fly away," said Toodles as the angel flew off the ground. The third Commyloose speared its pointed head inadvertently toward the other two that watched Toodles. The tentacles became all intertwined amongst the three of them.

Toodles bumped into icicles above that caused a rainstorm of jagged glass down to the Commyloose below. One lanced straight through a yellow eye, while the other two Commyloose survived, even if they had icicles causing them to bleed out blue blood.

The angel tried to wipe the ink below its bangs in order to see, even if it could not see past its yellow bangs in the first place.

Unknown to Toodles, was that another Commyloose was above on the platform with the falling icicles. The tentacles lowered down to the fluttering angel closer and closer.

With one quick motion, the tentacles grabbed Toodles by the arms. Screams were heard that echoed through the icy cavern and shook the icicles.

One by one, the Commyloose attached more and more tentacles in order to pull the angel up to the platform above.

The blind angel was in fang's reach of the Commyloose and its tongue licked up the side of Toodle's baby face. There were more screams out of grossness than terror.

Toodles was spared though by the hand of fate; the bony hand of fate. In the luminescence of Toodle's glow, a boney hand could be seen to touch the pointed head of the creepy octo-creature.

The creature's body slowly turned a deep shade of purple and black like ink being sprayed into water as the bony hand's touch killed the creature.

Towering above Toodles was the Reaper. The angel was not being saved, but in even worse danger and totally blind to it as the Reaper's cloak rippled and covered the platform with its torn material.


	11. Chapter 11: Friends & Allies

CHAPTER 11: FRIENDS & ALLIES

CHAPTER 11: FRIENDS & ALLIES

The reaper's cloak covered everything in darkness that Toodles brought to light. The angel was still blinded with ink from the Commyloose that caused its unseen eyes to water underneath of a mop of blonde hair.

The grim bony face of the reaper crept closer to Toodles to examine the angel. A giant hood made of thick darkened blue material loomed over the skeletal head. Ice, dust and dirt covered the reaper's hood and Toodles grew even colder in unaware fright.

If Toodles could see, then the angel would know the skeletal jaw of the reaper opened to reveal a maw of black eternal darkness inside. There were no eyes in the sockets, just dark despair.

The reaper's bony hand still grasped the Commyloose that clutched the kicking and screaming angel. A deep purple darkness had infected the entire body of the Commyloose. That was death invading its entire body.

The deep purple darkness stretched further away from the arms of the Commyloose down its tentacles that held Toodles. The deep purple darkness had crept and coiled around the bright luminescent arms of Toodles.

Finally, in a true death grip, the arms of the Commyloose clutched Toodles tighter as if trying to choke the angel. The deep purple darkness that infected the Commyloose threatened to infect Toodles as well.

More Commyloose broke from the icy walls and frost covered floors and began to swirl beneath Toodles. Soon they began to form a pillar of their bodies and tentacles to reach the angel. Each one of their dark eyes and yellow pupils looked upward to the angel.

The reaper's skeletal face still looked down to the bright angel. Suddenly the tentacles began to crack and break from how tightly it squeezed onto Toodles.

All of the tentacles broke off and the body of the Commyloose rotted away into what looked like a heap of moldy fruit.

Toodles suddenly dropped from the platform with the dead tentacles still wrapped around the angel's body. The reaper's scythe suddenly came down to snatch the angel. It missed and sliced through a number of icicles beneath the platform.

The angel fell like a five year old from a rooftop. The fall would not kill the tiny angel whose wings were wrapped with tentacles, but it was put into more danger.

One by one, the pillar of Commyloose began to dump their bodies from off of one another to form a circle around the blind angel. Even beneath of Toodles was the shadow of another Commyloose trapped in the ice right under the angel's feet.

The small angel was able to break free from the blackened tentacles to get free; free, but still blind to the danger.

When the Commyloose surrounding the angel postured their pointy heads toward him that is when the bluish purple membrane slid open beneath the angel. The yellow eye of the Commyloose beneath the angel slid into place and the creature tore through the frozen floor.

Toodles was torn from the floor by the force of the Commyloose coming loose. Both Toodles and the Commyloose ended up stuck to the frozen wall. The tentacles kept the angel pinned against the wall while razor sharp teeth swirled around the circular mouth of the Commyloose.

The small angel screamed in the fear of being pinned against the wall. A long tongue came out of the mouth of the Commyloose and licked the side of the angel's face. The tongue was like thick spaghetti and sloshed around Toodle's peachy ripe face.

Eventually the tongue of the Commyloose grew cold and literally froze to the right cheek of Toodles Face. Even the heat that Toodles generated from its luminescent body was nothing compared to the icy atmosphere.

Toodles couldn't feel the tongue struggling anymore. Nor could the angel feel the Commyloose forcing its weight onto Toodles. The Commyloose was there, it just wasn't trying anymore.

The angel tried to open its eyes beneath its long yellow bangs. Ink still covered the angel's eyes along with the yellow bangs.

As for the Commyloose, its head slowly slid off its body from a diagonal slice. Black juice poured out the top of the Commyloose and froze on the icy floor as it drained out.

Behind the Commyloose was the Reaper with its sickle having been swung. The reaper was impartial to the death that it brought. The Commyloose though saw the reaper as an attacker killing their squid squad.

The eight Commyloose that were left surrounded the black cloak of the reaper that reached out like the Commyloose that had their tentacles reached out.

The cloak waved and flailed even in an environment with no gusts or breezes. That was the power the reaper had, to use its cloak to cover everything in a black darkness.

The Commyloose were in for a surprise, as bits of the reaper's cloak tore off and transformed into tiny reapettes. Tiny bits of cloak twirled together and magically created four reapettes that flew by the squid squad.

Some of the Commyloose postured differently as they watched the reapettes fly from the reaper's body. The reapettes were followed by streams of dark smoke as they jettison out and slowly curved back toward the squid squad.

Once the reapettes came out, they were able to tear the black souls from the bodies of the Commyloose. Like ghastly mirrored reflections of themselves, the souls jumped from the Commyloose into the small bodies of the Reapettes.

As for the now soulless bodies of the Commyloose, they went dark and rotted away to the shape of black rotten fruit.

Meanwhile, Toodles shoved the half body of the Commyloose away. Toodles yelled, "Marco!" The reaper had its skeletal face covered in darkness except for a grim glance of its bony chin.

Toodles yelled out again, "Icarus where are you?"

Pit snapped awake covered in frozen dust. He shivered as a plume of frozen air flew from his mouth. He coughed out his frozen lungs as he regained his breath and pushed his cold body from the frozen ground.

A calming masculine voice called to the boy, "May thou have a word with thee Pit?"

Pit looked around even though the voice had come from the light before him. He looked to the darkness as if unaware to the brilliant light that had been in front of him.

The boy's body was red from the cold and his right cheek was a bright color. He cried out, "Who's there?"

"Come this way Pit," beckoned the voice.

"Not until you tell me who you are," retorted the boy.

The voice wondered, "Does not thou have faith?" The voice then answered, "Your parents did, when they put you in that fireplace to spare your life."

Pit wondered, "Father? Is that you?"

"Thou could say that my dear son," said the soothing voice, "But no Pit. Think harder and come this way."

Pit began to walk off in the darkness away from the brilliant light, until the voice let out a sigh, "No Pit, this way."

The boy turned around and began to walk toward the brilliant light that beckoned him. To Pit, he could only see pitch black darkness. The brilliant light wasn't really there, even if it was.

"Yes, that's it Pit," said the voice, "Step this way into the light."

Pit rubbed his eyes before he looked up from his beautiful blue eye and asked, "What light?"

He continued to walk forward as the voice called him, "This way."

The boy wondered, "Am I dead?"

The voice asked back, "Why does everyone wonder that? If you were dead, you would be in…"

Pit jumped in, "Hades?"

"Thou are already there," said the calming voice, before it explained, "Thou would be in heaven with the rest of us; having a big celebration."

The boy wondered, "Celebrating what?"

"Ah mortals," said the calming voice, "Thee forget how many questions you ask."

Pit could see in the distance a tiny flame. He continued to walk toward the flame as it grew larger in brightness. Soon there were two flames. They had been next to one another and in the distance, they looked to be one.

He wondered to the voice, "I see a flame! Is that you?" The bright light continued to be unseen to Pit as he kept walking.

"Yes Pit, that's it," answered the voice with a sigh, "I am a talking flame."

Pit had a little giggle and scratched the back of his neck as he continued to walk and apologize, "So, um. Which one are you? There are two."

With another sigh, the voice retorted, "Keep walking."

Pit continued until he could clearly see the flicker of the flames. He was soon between the two flames and asked the voice, "Where are you?"

Both flames were in tall bowls made of bronze. Each circular bowl was held up on four bronze poles that crossed in an X at the middle held together with ties. Each flaming pedestal was taller than Pit and looked impossible to have been constructed by man let alone make it into the darkness of the underworld.

One of the flames flared up and sent embers swirling in the air as the voice said, "Thee is everywhere Pit."

"I knew it," exclaimed Pit, "You are a talking flame!"

The other flame flared up as the other dwindled back down. The voice asked, "Then which one be I?"

Pit looked confused as he looked to the taller flame and somewhat pointed his finger toward one of them. He was indecisive as to which flame he should actually point to.

Finally he made his choice and pointed to the flame that was flared up.

After a moment of silence, both flames went down. They went down so far that they stopped flickering and became piles of dead wood with embers in them.

Suddenly the light that had beckoned to Pit grew in its intensity. Pit could see the light as it grew brighter. He could see it so well that he had to cover his eyes.

The voice boomed down and the flames rose, "Can thou see where thee is now? Silly mortal! Thou should be smote for being so ignorant as to which one be thee!"

Pit yelled, "I don't even understand what you're saying!" He then knelt down on one knee even in the frost covered floor and said, "But you keep us around, because we entertain you Lord Zeus."

The mighty voice of Zeus boomed again with another flare of the flames, "Explain!"

"You made life a game," uttered Pit, "But its not a game for us, it's a game for you Lord Zeus. Oh please don't smite me!"

"Thou have not paid close attention," boomed Zeus's voice before it grew calm to retort, "Thee cannot smite thou. Merely test thou." The flames grew calm again with the tone of Zeus's voice.

Zeus stood above him as a ball of light in an otherwise darkened chamber of the underworld as he replied, "Before thee ask why thou hast summoned thee; Thou hast brought thee here to be tested." After a pause, Zeus uttered, "But to thee, it will be a game as you so aptly worded."

From the blinding light formed a mirror covered with frost and ice. It dropped out of the light and Pit barely dodged it as it shattered next to him.

"These are monoliths Pit," spoke the voice of Zeus, "They will either kill you or you will be rewarded." The Lord then laughed at the boy as he proclaimed, "But thou cannot simply dodge them to pass this test of thee. Thou must shatter these monoliths before they smash into the ground."

A second one dropped out of the brightness, followed by a third. Both had Pit running as the giant mirrors smashed on the permafrost covered floors. Pit yelled out, "With what? I have no bow!"

Pit's empty hands said it all, but Zeus's voice boomed again, "Stop asking questions and defend thee!" After that was said, Pit hid under one of the large bronze bowls that carried the flames.

Another mirrored monolith dropped from the brightness from nowhere. It was directly above the flame. Pit thought he was safe, but the monoliths are so large, that the monolith smashed straight through the fixture. The bronze bowl containing the fiery wood spilt when the bronze rods broke.

Glass from the mirror was everywhere along the ground and now flaming wood was too. Two more monoliths were dropped from the air, with a third one. All three smashed into the ground with Pit tumbling, ducking and barrel rolling out of the way.

Pit yelled out, "I am supposed to be saving Palutena!"

Zeus boomed as the flames flared up, "How will thou safe her without a weapon Pit?"

More monoliths dropped from the sky, as Zeus boomed again, "The creatures and demons that Medusa left in the Hades underworld were the ones not fit enough to conquer the mortal world or the heavens!"

Monoliths shattered into the ground and Pit was forced to run over broken glass and roll in it as he dodged the mirrors. Each time Pit looked up, he saw his own reflection that came down to slay him.

Zeus boomed, "How can you expect to defeat more powerful creatures with your meager copper arrows?"

Pit continued to dodge monolith after monolith. Forced to crawl, roll and tumble through the shattered mirrors. Zeus finally informed him, "Defend thee Pit or die in the broken glass of thyself."

Eventually, Pit had an idea and ran toward the overturned bronze bowl of fire. He ran as monoliths shattered behind him one after another, until he was forced to take a running jump and tumble through the glass to avoid them.

When Pit rolled up to his knee, a monolith had fallen from the light above. Just when the monolith was about to crush and kill him; Pit jammed one of the bronze rods into the ground and held it straight up as he cowered beneath of it.

The piece of bronze rod lanced through the monolith and shattered it over Pit's head. Zeus calmly told Pit, "That is a good start my son, but aim will shower thee with glass."

As monolith after monolith fell, Pit developed a technique. He would move a bit each time, to adjust the long bronze rod so that it would lance through the corner of the monolith. The three other sides would then slam into the ground and shatter, but Pit would be safe from a shower of broken glass.

He endured a severe test from Zeus, until it finally ended. Zeus congratulated him, "Well done my son. But tell me this." His voice paused, before he asked, "Why did you not hide beneath the bronze bowl?"

Pit held his bronze rod and looked over to the overturned bronze bowl that he could have easily hid under. He then knelt and looked up to the brilliant light as he had the rod in one hand and covered his eyes with the other. Pit answered, "I never thought of that."

"Good thing thou did not," said Zeus calmly, "The heat contained in that bowl would have cooked thou to death."

Pit was done with his test and he threw the bronze rod to the side. The boy was covered in his own blood and was freezing.

The flames died down a bit as Zeus calmly told him, "With all tests there are rewards my son. This test is no different."

Pit looked up with his glorious was wings in shambles as his body crumpled from weakness.

"Thou hast gained my favor Pit," said the voice of Zeus. "But that is not all;" continued the voice, "Look beside you, where you threw that bronze rod you defended yourself with."

Pit glanced over to discover the long bronze rod had turned into a bronze arrow. Zeus told him with a soothing voice, "This will not be thy final test my son, but thou will survive to see thy next test."

The powerful bright light of Zeus disappeared and left Pit alone in a dark chamber lit by the flames that were rapidly dying. Zeus was still there in the chamber in a bright light that mortals could not see.

Pit continued to kneel, as he was now in shadows and uttered, "Thank you Lord Zeus."

When he stood up, Pit walked over to the bronze arrow that could be seen in the light of the flames, it was revealed all of his cuts had healed. He went from being a bloody mess to being uninjured, even if he was still freezing.

The boy picked up the arrow and uttered, "Bronze arrow. You're my only friend." He put it into his quiver next to the jealous copper arrow.

Zeus's voice whispered so softly that Pit could not hear him, "Thou hast plenty of friend Pit. Thou simply is not with them yet."

Elsewhere in the underworld, was Medusa's palace; the fortress that guarded the gateway to the world of the mortals. Inside the palace were stone statues of Centurions that stood ready to attack. Snakes slithered across some of them. Other statues had gazes of fear or terror as they were turned to stone in positions of sorrow.

Deep inside of the palace was a chamber covered with tiled marble floor. In a glimpse of torchlight, the back of a woman could be seen. Her spine was clearly marked with the bumps that went down her back next to the cloth of her dirty toga.

Around her neck was a chain with big links that kept her held captive. The woman struggled against the chain in the light as she peaked behind her to see what the noise was. It was a snarl that she had heard, and Anna was the woman.

Her face was still bright, even beneath of dirt. Her hair was still angelic, even if greasy from not being washed in so long. It gleamed and hung in swollen strands.

There was another snarl behind her and a growl from a large beast as she quietly said, "Come on; come on!" She said with a hint of glee, "Got it!"

A big opened lock hit the ground with a clank and a thick linked chain followed the lock. Anna whispered to herself, "Princesses need saving, but I can save myself."


	12. Chapter 12: The Reapettes

CHAPTER 12: REAPETTES

Within the ice caverns of the underworld, Medusa's cackles echoed through the chambers. She laughed, "Run; run; run; a run; you better run."

Over the frost covered floors, Toodles fluttered its angelic wings just out of the reaper's reach. The sickle smashed into the floor time after time from the reaper as it climbed after Toodles.

The reaper crept as quickly along the frost covered floor just as quickly as Toodles could fly. Its bony hands grasped the frozen floors as the reaper practically crawled on all fours to chase after the small angel. Its black cloak grew in proportion as it absorbed Toodle's light and covered everything behind it in a cloud of darkness.

Each time the sickle would slam down, the reaper would use it to climb further up to chase after the blinded angel.

Medusa was able to watch the chase through stone statues littered throughout the frozen caverns. Giant faces carved into the ice that had icicles for teeth and eerie hollowed out eyes.

Toodles flew higher, with the reaper closely following as the chase quickened. The small angel huffed and puffed exhausted as its light began to flicker.

Following the reaper were its reapettes that giggled and shrieked as they followed their mother. Clouds of smoke bellowed from each of them to maintain their flight and they even twirled around one another with joy of the hunt.

Medusa's voice hissed from the nearest icy face, "You better hide your bright face from the black gaze of my reaper."

Toodles huffed and puffed, "This isn't happening, this isn't happening. I'm having a nightmare right now, and any second I'm going to wake up." The angel looked behind it to see the dark cloak of the reaper that was faceless.

To the angel, it could only see the reaper as a blurry dark spot. Then when the angel's light flickered, it showed the grim face of the reaper in brief flashes, just before the sickle crashed into the wall next to the angel.

Toodles felt the breeze from the sickle muttered, "Oh that's right, angels don't have nightmares, because we don't sleep. That's a mortal thing." The angel flew upward as the reaper's bony hand tried to grab the angel's feet.

A child's voice bellowed, "Reaper!" The reaper remained clung to the icy wall with its sickle as a climbing tool as it turned over to its left and peered down the cavern.

Down below was a small flame flickering, but the reaper wasn't interested as it turned back and grabbed the wall again. In the glow of the small flame was Pit, and while the reaper wasn't interested, the reapettes were interested.

The small reapettes hurled themselves through the icy cavern and were hidden by the unseen darkness. Pit could see streams of smoke in the light of the flame. He knew they were around him and circling for the right moment.

Toodles squealed, "Oh Icarus! You came back for me!"

Icarus yelled out, "Didn't I find you and the reaper before? I'm thinking you two are hiding your love from me."

The reapettes continued to cross into the red glow of the flame that Pit carried with him. He had carried a flaming piece of wood with him from Zeus's eternal flames.

Toodles screamed out, "Oh I must have the blessing of Zeus to be saved!"

Pit yelled up to the angel, "Don't count on that blessing, Zeus isn't as nice as you think. He made me work to earn my bronze arrow, but he forgot one thing."

Toodles fluttered out of the reach of the reaper and yelled, "What's that?"

Medusa cackled with joy from a nearby face of ice that was carved out of misery. She hissed, "Father forgot to find him a bow!" With hearty laughter from Medusa, it was revealed that Pit was notably missing his bow, even if he had a pair of arrows in his quiver.

The boy held onto a flaming chunk of wood and readied it for the reapette's attack. The first reapette tore out of the darkness and into the read light headed for Pit's face.

A reflex made Pit duck to the side and club the tiny reapette to the ground where it tumbled across the frozen floor. The next reapette entered the light after Pit's back. He simply did a summersault and flipped end over end as the reapette flew over him.

When Pit rose from the floor he quickly smashed the reapette to the ground. The reapette winced and coughed as Pit looked for where the two others had gone.

There was a twinkling light far above his head that became blotted out with a shadow dark as the night sky. With a rush of might, Pit bolted from the area like one of his arrows. He leapt from platform to platform on his journey up.

His flaming log from the eternal fire lit his way. Pit could hear them giggling from the shadows before their smoky bodies streamed across the light.

The two remaining reapettes were smarter to stay away from Pit and his flaming log. Pit remained focused on the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak and continued climbing.

Eventually the two reapettes giggled amongst themselves from above Pit. In the darkness they cringed their body with smoky laughter. It was Medusa speaking to them telepathically and they were overjoyed that the goddess would speak with such meek elementals. The two reapettes cloaked in black were tickled pink.

They readied their ambush a few platforms up from Pit as he continued his climb. At the top was still a twinkle from Toodles before the midnight shadow that is the reaper made the light disappear once more.

Pit was undaunted, dodging falling icicles and rolling across frozen platforms to avoid other creatures like Commyloose. Each Commyloose that the boy avoided he either clubbed to the side with his flaming log afterward or their own momentum took them plummeting off of the icy platforms into the abyss below.

The reapettes giggled closer to Pit, so close that the boy was cautious of them. Pit stood next to an icy wall that gleamed red and yellow with the flame. From within the sheet of ice came the cold empty stare of both reapettes watching him.

One of the two dark nymphs clawed the ice as Pit looked to everywhere but the frozen wall. When Pit did bother to turn to the wall, the reapettes scattered further into the darkness of the chamber behind the wall of ice.

Pit felt the ice to discover, "It's melting." He looked up and saw that it was not just a wall, but a very long icicle. The entire section of chamber that he was in had walls of ice with water running down them.

The walls of ice were tall and Pit was in a hallway that he could either get to the end with an icy staircase or get shot out the other end that he had just come from.

He looked forward to the icy staircase and one reapette hovered down from above. It looked at him and giggled for a moment. Then it charged forward toward the boy with a trail of black smoke behind.

Pit readied his flaming log as if the reapette was a pitch straight for him. With his focus on that reapette, the other came from behind and magically latched onto the boy's head. His soul was being torn from his body in a struggle of black magic.

An image of Pit was being torn from his living body by the tiny reapette behind him. The boy turned around and swung at the reapette but missed.

The other reapette that had come hurtling down the hallway still approached and came to Pit with the same dark magic the other had. Pit's image was being sucked from his body by the other dark trickster.

There were giggles in the air as both reapettes took turns trying to pull Pit's soul from his body. One would yank Pit's image to the left and then the other would yank it to the right as if they were twin hair dressers.

Stuck in a hallway of icy walls there was no escape for Pit. He was weak and unable to swing the log. At some point he dropped the log all together.

Water trickled down the icy walls and streamed down the icy hallway where it poured off of the platform into the blackness below.

His life was being drained as the reapettes continued to steal his soul. Pit was weak and put his hand on one of the walls. That gesture attracted attention from everything behind the icy wall.

Behind the icy wall was a murky dark shadow that swam next to the boy's hand; followed by another murky shadow that went the other way. The black shadows streamed around Pit's hand, attracted by his presence.

Down on one knee and struggling to pick up his flaming log, the flame grew dim. On the other side of the icy wall, came a pounding sound, followed by another pound and another.

Three sounds that distracted Pit as the two reapettes swirled around his head crossing over one another and giggling. They were like birdies that someone sees when they are in a daze.

Medusa's cackled echoed through the underworld again as she said, "I should sing you a song Pit!" She then questioned herself, "A song? Nay! I am singing you a lullaby kid!"

Pit could not shake off a feeling of being sleepy, but then came the fourth pound from beyond the icy wall. The wall was covered with murky black shadows that all clung to the wall near Pit's hand.

"Hush little Pit," hissed Medusa, "Don't say a word. Just go to sleep. Now just count them two little black birds."

The boy crumbled to his back with the reapettes still circling him and draining his life force. Then came the fifth pound from beyond the icy wall; followed by a cracking sound that tore through the ears of everyone that could hear it.

Even the earless reapettes were distracted with the sound of the crack. It was followed by another crack and another, until there was a spider web of cracks in the icy wall.

When the sound of another pound came, the entire wall of ice shattered and sent a flood of freezing water onto Pit and his two antagonists. The reapettes screeched for help, but there was none to be offered, instead it was revenge of the Commyloose. Six of them had come through the water held up by the ice wall.

With Commyloose clutching onto the tiny caped bodies of each reapette, there was a struggle for underworld life. The reapettes struggled against tentacles to get free or steal the souls of the creepy creatures. It was a timed struggle though that was not won by either, because the flood of water washed down the hall and poured off the end of the platform with both reapettes disappearing into the abyss.

The water hit the other wall with such a force that it smashed through that wall as well! Commyloose were dumped off the side and Pit's young body was washed into a few remnants of the ice wall.

Blue tentacles tumbled over the side as they tried to grab the boy or anything else. It was a squid school that frantically tried to clutch anything it could. One of the Commyloose managed to hold onto an icy wall only to get hit by two more rushing Commyloose that shattered through the icy clutch.

Pit remained on his back as the flood subsided. Not every Commyloose went off the platform, there were a few that flopped around disoriented and confused.

With a cough, Pit rolled onto his side with his body wet and freezing. His eyes were heavy and he was going to sleep. Sleep enough to become a permanent part of the ice, just as the frozen Commyloose had been.

"That's it my boy, you count them sheep... err... squid," hissed Medusa as she smiled with the knowledge that Pit's death was immanent. Chunks of ice that were left standing began to reform into a cold jagged face with a hollow mouth and hollow eyes. This was Medusa's will manipulating the ice so that she could see.

"Now take precious life from that boy," said Medusa from the hollow mouth of the frozen jagged face.

Pit continued to lie on his side with his body turning blue with whips of black cloth flicking near him. The flicking pieces of black cloth soon revealed themselves to be the bottom of the reaper's cloak it slowly came to Pit's freezing body.


	13. Chapter 13: The Unlucky

CHAPTER 13: THE UNLUCKY

Pit woke up, but when he woke up, it was in his own bed. His bed sheets had their normal boy scent and his room was decorated with cherubs. When he rubbed his eyes, his vision came into focus. He was at home, and everything is as it was.

He rolled up onto all fours to take a peak outside of his window. There were rumblings from outside. Pit looked at the closed shutters of his window with wonder of what was outside. From a few trembles of a rumbling world, there was a loud boom.

He pushed out one of his shutters to see what was outside and when he did the wind tore open the other shutter. It was a storm Pit had never seen the likes of before. The shutters slapped against the side of the house and Pit's eyes grew wide as he saw a terrifying storm. Lightning crashed down from black clouds that blocked out the sun.

Suddenly Collin appeared and told Pit, "There's a storm outside!" He reached outside to grab the shutters and close them. Once they were shut he turned to Pit and said, "Keep them closed." He then latched them with a hook as he said, "And latched."

Pit looked sickly and trembling. Collin took a moment to sit down with him and hug him a little as he said, "It's just a storm Pit." The boy was shaking like a mouse in front of a cat. Shaking and covered with sweat, Collin wondered, "We do not want you to blow away."

He was cold, pale, white and shivering, but Collin just held him tighter. That was until Collin told him, "Anna is making some beef stew for dinner." Pit's disposition changed completely. He had to see Anna.

But where was she? For someone that should be right there making stew over a fire, she was no where to be found. The fire was still going, but there was no beautiful smile in the room.

Suddenly her voice asked, "Pit?" He turned around startled and nearly in a panic. She wondered, "Are you feeling alright?" She was right there sitting with a bowl of beef stew.

She asked, "Want some?" There was no answer from Pit; instead he was still in a shivering startled panic. With a giggle in her voice, she wondered, "Well?"

Collin had a bowl of soup in his hands as well. As he ate it with a spoon, he commented, "This sure is good stew."

Without warning, the front door tore open from the howling wind and nearly tore the door off the hinges. Collin put down his bowl of beef stew and quickly went to the door.

A single jerk tore the door shut and closed once again. The door was then latched, which it should have been in the first place. After a moment of shivering, Collin gave Pit a bowl of the beef stew and said, "Here Pit, eat."

Pit dunked a spoon into the water and ate some of the stew. After his second slurp of soup, a blood red worm appeared in the soup. The red worm was followed by a pair of wings and finally an eye emerged from the broth and looked straight at Pit.

He dropped the bowl and it shattered on the ground with Pit's lungs screaming as loud as they could. As the worm squirmed on the ground, Collin asked, "Did you not like it? Anna made it for you."

With that said in a panic, Pit's gaze caught Collin's handsome face. It was not quite his face, instead he only had his left eye and that eye soon was tore out of his skull and spilled onto the floor. His second eye was attached to a worm with wings.

Collin's body dropped to the floor and slumped over as the newborn worm squirmed on the floor. Meanwhile, Anna asked, "Doncha like it Pit?"

When he turned to her, he could see her skin was green. Soon after he noticed her green skin, snakes rose up from beneath her long beautiful hair. She kept asking, "Doncha like it Pit?"

Pit snapped out of his trembling daze to see the hideous skull of the reaper over him. The jaw of the reaper widened as its deadly skeletal hand came down to Pit.

Behind the reaper came a flicker of bright light. An annoyance that made a shadow that draped over the boy. A flickering light so annoying that the reaper became distracted. It was followed by a voice that screamed, "Over here ugly!"

The reaper turned his head ever so slight, by wanted to keep its attention on Pit's freezing body. When the reaper turned back to Pit a large icicle jammed through the chest of the reaper. An icicle so long it might have been a lance carved by Zeus himself!

Bellowing screams filled the air as the reaper turned around with the furious anger of the underworld. There was a mere angel there, an angel with a flickering light named Toodles.

The angel stayed away from the deadly reach of the reaper as the reaper's cloak began to sink into the icy platform. The ice was turned black from the cloak as the reaper melted like a snowman.

The reaper slowly thrashed and spun as if sinking in quicksand. It tried to grab Toodles, but failed as the angel giggled. The bright angel laughed, "Bye bye mister bad guy!"

Then suddenly the light appeared brighter as Pit continued to shiver on the floor. Twinkling sounds could be heard as if being played by a harp followed by the giggles of many. Toodles looked around to discover other angels descending from above to join him.

A blue haired angel chuckled, "I have never seen such heroics!" Then a purple haired angel swirled around Toodles and proclaimed, "That is why you have always been Palutena's favorite!" A rosy red cheeked angel with red hair touched Toodles with a giggle and said, "You and I tonight Toodles; Jumping on the bed together!" Then the green haired angel jumped in, "No Toodles, you and I jumping on the bed together." An orange haired angel exclaimed, "All of us jumping up and down on the bed!"

With an oversized smile on such a small body, Toodles giggled, "Three at a time! We do not want to break Palutena's bed." All of the angels giggled amongst one another as they swirled around a flickering Toodles.

What Toodles had failed to notice was the reaper rose up from the ice behind them all. Soon the reaper loomed next to them and reached out for the yellow haired angel. The bony hand of the reaper grabbed Toodles and he screamed so loud that he snapped himself out of his fantasy tangent to find himself behind the reaper.

The yell had been so loud that the reaper flung its heavy black cloak around to see the angel there flickering. Toodles was face to face with the opening of the black hooded demon. With the light made by the angel, Toodles could see the skeletal face of the reaper.

The angel screamed again in fear at the hooded reaper, which only caused a blue snake to drop out of the hollow eye socket of the reaper's skeletal face. The snake hit the icy ground with a sound.

Meanwhile, Toodle's head went back and the angel's forearm went up across its bangs. The angel then dropped slowly with a faint.

As for the reaper, its bony hand reached down. The cloak draped itself over the floor and when the skeletal hand came up again it had the blue winged snake in its hand. The reaper then put the blue snake back into its unseen hollowed out eye socket. Little did the reaper realize, when it touched the snake its color turned from blue into a deep purplish black color.

Then when the reaper turned to get Pit, the boy was gone. The reaper turned to find the angel, but Toodles was gone as well.

Undaunted, with a single broad gesture with its scythe sent out four reapettes hurtling out of the cloak's sleeve. There was a trail of black smoke from each reapette that left. They would be the ones to hunt down the two heroes.

Medusa knew where they were however. High above the icy realm in the underworld was another series of lava pools. These lava pools are what had made the wall of water and these pools are what would warm Pit to keep him from freezing to death.


	14. Chapter 14: Kobils

CHAPTER 14: KOBILS

In a cavern full of lava pools that glowed bright red, Pit looked to a demon's face caved in the rock and asked, "Where are we?"

The angel replied, "I think you died back there and we are in Hades."

Pit nodded his head in understanding and asked, "Then why are you here?"

Toodles replied, "We have been over this before."

As pit looked to the pools of molten rock, he wiped the sweat off his brow and elaborated, "If I died, then you died."

"Ahem," said Toodles, "Angels do not die, that is a trend mortals have that will never be in style to angels."

Pit wondered, "What is a trend?"

Toodles asked, "What is a question? When you find the definition, stop asking them." The angel then explained, "We do blink out of existence when we run out of energy." With that said, Toodle's light flickered from bright to dim, before it explained, "This is one of those times when I am afraid."

"I am too," said Pit as he looked to the black rocks they were about to climb.

The angel commented, "I am afraid of running out of that energy. We merely blink out, never to be seen again."

Pit asked, "Drink from a chalice."

Toodles replied as it fluttered higher, "I am amazed that was not in the form of a question. Angels drink from chalices, but our power does not come from there. Our energy comes from the light that Palutena shines down upon us. I am deprived of her love and I need it."

Pit was still in a daze as he looked at all of the frightening demonic faces. There were pillars that held up the cavern. On these pillars were demon faces every meter or so. Sorrow filled hollow eyes, angry eye sockets; open mouths with jagged teeth and draping lower lips with gaping maws. It was a sadistic beauty that Medusa had given her underworld kingdom.

Medusa's voice cackled from every demonic face on every pillar that surrounded the two travelers. She boomed, "Where are you going boy?"

Pit continued to climb the black rock as he muttered, "To save Palutena."

One of the hanging stone faces asked her, "Even if you get here, she is mine and there is no way that a mortal can face a god." She then quipped with a hiss, "or a beautiful goddess for that matter."

Toodles continued to flutter its tired wings next to Pit as the angel said, "Beauty is a face that warms a room, not one that makes a garden of lawn ornaments."

After that was said, the black rock Pit had his hand on shifted and constructed a face with one single eye. The face had a hollow mouth and eye with a pointy nose made of rock that almost lanced Pit. Startled, the boy let out a scream and the face spoke to him.

With Medusa's voice, the rock face asked, "And if you save my sister, what happens then? You will only have a world of statues and demons to play in. No sun, no emotion and when you see what I have done to your overworld, it will make my underworld seem like a daydream!"

Pit continued to climb past the face as it cackled with Medusa's laughter. The next platform that he climbed onto had a lake of lava with a towering lava fall that came from high above. Around the lake were candles set up to perfectly trace the lake.

There were strange little demons that lapped the lava as if it was water. Each demon was purple with a fat round bottom, two horns and a single eye.

The boy asked, "What are those?"

Toodles did not even bother looking; instead the angel asked Pit, "What do they look like?"

"Look!" exclaimed Pit as he pointed to them. His single word had garnered the attention from every tiny purple fat bottomed demon near the lava lake. Each demon had a pair of tiny wings that did not possibly look like it could carry them.

In fact, one of them proved that it could not fly. It lowered its head, raised its fat bottom. The demon then flapped its tiny wings and wiggled its fat round bottom in the air. Then it tried to fly with a lunge toward Pit. Instead of taking flight, it leapt right into the lava and was burnt away.

Toodles had seen that and informed Pit, "Kobils. Very indigenous to the underworld, I am quite amazed that we have not seen them already." The angel's wings were tired as it continued, "They drink lava, which fills their bellies, but because the lava is so hot, it continued to make steam."

The angel noticed Pit staring straight at the Kobils and asked, "Are you listening?"

Pit joked, "Not one bit."

Toodles fluttered to the ground and with a dim aura commented, "I need to take a rest." On the ground is where the angel continued, "You have something in common with the Kobil, because once their bellies have too much steam in them..."

With that said, one of the Kobil let out a green gas from its fat bottom, which caused Toodles to add, "You both release gasses."

As Pit looked to the herd of Kobil that formed, he uttered, "We need to find those treasures."

Medusa cackled through the air as a face formed in the towering lava fall. The lava fell in such a perfect array to trace the mouth of Medusa along with her single remaining eye.

She laughed, "Treasures you say?" With a horrifying smile, the lava fall hissed, "These treasures no longer exist!"

The boy cried out, "Lies!"

The lava fall hissed coldly and sharply, "I," "don't," "lie." The last word echoed and after a few seconds it was followed with Medusa's laughter that filled the cavern.

Behind Pit came the four reapettes tearing through the dark chamber. He heard their giggles as they came and ducked for cover as they tore past him with streams of smoke. The face of each reapette was more hideous than the last. The first merely had a skeletal face, but the final reapette's face had eye sockets of sorrow and a missing lower jaw.

The reapettes giggled with delight as they each curved at a high speed to turn around over the lava pool.

Toodles screamed for Pit to, "Shoot them!"

Pit asked, "With what?"

"Your bow! Your bow," exclaimed the angel.

One by one the crazy little reapettes came into a line of four and hurtled themselves toward the boy. Pit took the arm of the angel and took off running at the side of the lava lake through the herd of cycloptic kobil.

With the speedy reapettes dashing at the speed of an arrow, it was difficult for them to turn in flight. Instead they were forced to fly in a giant curve with four trails of smoke behind them as they lined up for another attack.

Pit and Toodles were head and shoulders above the smelly kobils. One by one the purple demons leapt and lunged at the two invaders. Their posture would lower and they would dive in an attempt to capture the boy, but with only one eye, they had no depth perception and clearly missed their target each time.

After a half dozen kobil dives, a pair of kobil dove into one another head first and knocked one another out.

The boy and the angel had tore through the pack of kobil quite easily to the wall of black rock that was lit by the red light of the lava fall. Toodles was too tired to climb or fly, so the angel clung onto Pit's back over the quiver of arrows while he began to climb.

Amongst the herd of thirty kobil, the reapers sliced through the ranks stealing their life energy from each one they came in contact with. One by one a black energy that looked like a ghost of a kobil leapt from the kobil's body into the reapette's cloak.

Pit climbed vigorously as Toodle's feet dangled beneath his toga. Despite the boy's quick ascension, there was no way he could outrun the giggling reapettes.

Three reapettes quickly caught up to him and hovered behind Pit without his notice. They bolted like an arrow from Pit's bow just as Toodles turned to see what was following them.

Once Toodles turned its head back to the task at hand, the fourth reapette came up quickly. So quickly the tiny body spun itself upside-down to stop its momentum. It would have amused anyone that watched, especially the giggle heavy reapettes.

The reapette that had spun in a circle giggled to itself, before it took off further up the cavern. Pit and Toodles both turned to see what had made the giggle, but by the time they swung their heads around, the creepy creature was gone.

Pit was eye level with the face of the lava fall. The single eye of the lava fall looked to him and moved to follow his climb, until the lava fall spoke, "Don't look down my boy! It is a long fall, but I am taking all bets on whether you fall in the lake of lava or the herd of kobil."

The fat bottomed purple demons that were still alive were waiting for the boy to fall. More and more collected at the bottom of the cliff before they had created a lake of purple next to the lake of red.

Pit asked his angel, "Do you smell something?"

Without pause, the angel retorted, "Please mortal, hold it in."

He could smell the next wave of kobil above them that had come out of another chamber. Dozens of them had come from their cave community to see what they had never seen before; a talking lava fall. Instead they found lunch and their flocculate was evidence of their joy.

When Pit climbed to the next plateau of the rock wall, he was snatched by the kobil community and dragged into their home. Dozens of kobil clamped their ugly little hands on Pit and Toodles and dragged them further and further from their goal of Palutena.

Inside a cavern so deep and dark that Toodles had to illuminate things. Unfortunately, the two meals did not want to see what they saw; thousands, if not millions of fat bottomed kobil inside of a mega chamber with a giant cooking pot at the center.

The cooking pot looked as if it had once been used by Medusa. It was secured to the bottom of the chamber on small pyramids of skulls with a pool of lava beneath of it. The cavern itself wreaked of kobil bottom; kobil bottom and the tortured meals that had come before them.

The kobil marched a struggling Pit next to a wall of skeletons. Toodles was marched by a wall of stubby skeletons with feet, but no legs. These were the skeletons of angels. There were no wings on these skeletal angels, which meant that the kobil must like to eat the wings.

The cavern swarmed with purple and the heroes were soon lost within the kobil cavern, swallowed up by thousands and no easy way out. Toodle's light went dim, either from exhaustion or fear of seeing what will happen next.

Pit's scream for help echoed the cavern and the underworld itself, but there was no one alive to hear his pleas. Even if there was anyone alive, they were struggling for life themselves.


	15. Chapter 15: Cooking

CHAPTER 15: COOKING

Within a palace, beautiful and regal, covered with powerful red colors and golden artifacts was a single candle in what looked to be a throne room. This was Zeus's palace, a place never seen by mortals. It was only dreamed about, and even in dreams no one could see it for its beauty and genius. No mortal has the genius of a god or goddess, which is why no one could comprehend its perfection.

The single candle at the center of it all in an unimpressive hallway; it would go unnoticed by everyone that did not know what was truly there.

A breezy voice chilled the room as it asked, "Are you here?" There was no answer, but the focus was on the red candle that dripped wax off the side.

The voice asked again, "Where are you Lord?" Once again, there was no answer, nor a flicker from the candle. "Perhaps Zeus is not everywhere after all," said the voice.

The breathy voice spoke again, "I herald a warning Lord Zeus." The candle wavered, either from a wind or the voice spoke too closely to it.

"Your daughter seeks her revenge," said the breezy voice slowly in a beautiful arrogance. "You know this," aired the voice, to a flicker of the candle, "Which is why you help the boy, get his."

The candle did not waver, flicker or falter. Instead, the voice asked, "Will he have his revenge?" There was no response from the candle, which provoked the question, "You are the all mighty Zeus and you know who will get their revenge. I am merely asking who to watch."

With that, the candle extinguished itself in the blink of an eye and the shadowy presence in Zeus's palace was instantly forced out. Forced out in a violent way unpleasant to man or immortal; within an instant, the shadowy presence could see everything in the immense distance between Zeus's throne room, over the starless midnight sky to Palutena's balcony.

The candle lit itself automatically again, while the shadowy presence of Erinus was left to ponder, "Is Zeus afraid of his daughter's wrath?"

As for the boy Pit, he was stuck in the bottom of a pit; covered by the kobil community surrounding Medusa's giant black cooking pot. The bottom of the pot was being licked by flames caused by exploding gasses. The gassy little kobil would take their turns flocculating over the small pool of lava. When a lava bubble would burst the green gasses would ignite and heat the belly of the round cooking pot.

That was the only light in the chamber, and Pit was so close to the flames his face was red and glowing. He yelled, "Oh gross!"

Toodles was elsewhere, being held by the kobil and yelled out, "I smell it each time I am around mortals!"

Pit cried out, "Where are you?" Toodles flickered its light and there was the angel, high above the cooking pot on a chain.

"I am about to be dunked like an egg," yelled the luminescent angel. Its wings were bound and tied with the chain too. Pit was only being held by four kobil. Each kobil had one of Pit's limbs. Apparently the kobil only had one chain.

Pit's wings had stopped melting and they drooped as if it was an unhappy face. They were once beautiful, with individual feathers, painstakingly put into place, but now they were two individual wings with no definitive feathers. Pit yelled, "Do you see a way out of here?"

"Questions, always with the questions," replied the angel, "The only thing I see is purple; lots of purple; my least favorite color of all ever since Tingles jumped on Palutena's bed without me."

Toodles had a small flashback of walking into Palutena's bedroom. When the door swung open and he peaked in, there was the purple haired Tingles jumping on Palutena's bed without him. Toodle's mouth grew wide before the angel snapped back into reality.

"You can jump on my bed," said Pit, before he added, "Only if we get out of here."

"That's no incentive," said Toodles, "Me jumping with a mortal is strange, you have bizarre wiggly legs and no wings." Toodles light flickered off from lack of energy.

Instead four large flames flared up at the corners of the round chamber. The kobil cooking club was about to start its feast.

Pit asked the angel, "Why would they want to cook us?"

"They might be demons, but they are no savages," replied the angel, "They want to cook you to boil out all of your mortal diseases."

Pit wondered as he looked at the flame, "Then why do they want to cook you?"

"I taste better that way," snipped the angel.

The boy quipped, "I don't see why you are worried, seeing as how you can't die. Just hold your breath."

"I do not breathe," said Toodles, "We do not value gasses like mortals and I would hold my breath, but that does not mean that being boiled does not hurt!" After that, Toodles muttered, "Guys? Goobers? Purple people eaters; just to tell you, humans taste better and you should cook him."

With that said, one of the smelly kobil that just made the fire hotter, made a strange chattering of its claws and gestures with its hands and wings then walked off for the next one to take its place.

Pit wondered, "What did it say?"

Toodles pondered, "Do I know kobil? No. Angels do not speak with demons on an every day basis."

The boy commented, "He probably said we know humans taste better, that's why they're saving me for the main course."

Toodles asked, "See what I am doing right now?"

Pit retorted, "No, its pretty dark in here." With that said, Toodles flickered its luminescence on so Pit could see the angel sticking out its tongue. Then the light went off without a flicker.

The angel muttered, "I am tired and sleepy. This has been the most active century of my life."

With the nod of his head, Pit commented, "Yeah me too." After a brief pause, Pit looked up to the dimly lit angel and asked, "Now that I think about it, why would the demon know Greek? He could have asked what we are saying or he could have been telling you the bathroom is under you."

Toodles asked, "We are speaking Greek? I thought it was English."

Pit wondered, "Who is English?"

"Never mind," replied Toodles.

Afterward, one by one, four large flames lit in the four corners of the circular keep of kobil. The flames grew larger as the fires were stoked from gasses fueled by kobil. The flames were large enough that the boy and his angel could see every purple body in a tint of red light.

There was nothing but purple covering the ground, the walls and even some of the ceiling. Each of the four lit flames were in the giant maws of statues that held up the ceiling. The statues had tiny looking bodies compared to their giant chins and wide open mouths. The arms were long and towered up to the ceiling. One statue had a snaggle tooth, while another had two flat teeth at the bottom of its large jaw that was big enough for any adult man to enter without ducking.

Suddenly all of the chattering amongst the kobil ended, and they all turned to one focal point. Pit looked up and flicked his bangs so he could see with both eyes. Toodles asked, "What are they doing?" Eventually the angel dangling from a chain rotated its body to see what had brought their silence.

At the entrance of the chamber was a chubby little kobil that entered the cavern wearing a crown of jagged black rocks and holding a twisted scepter that had three glowing golden rings that lit the area. The crown had the kobil's posture lowered with its head nearly to the ground of the rock ledge it stood on.

The apparent King Kobil chattered its mouth to the others in silence. At some point after the chattering had stopped from the king, it raised its crown burdened head briefly, before lowering it and releasing a cloud of stinky green mist behind it.

Every kobil in the community erupted with chatter, flapped its wings and raised its arms. While still in the frenzy, kobils one by one still stoked the fire beneath of Toodles who said, "It's getting so hot I think my wings are going to melt."

Suddenly a shadow from King Kobil's body jumped from its body. Quickly after that, another darkened image of the king was pulled away in another direction. The King Kobil's body dropped to the ground completely vacant of life.

That was just before two reapettes tore into the chamber and shared the life force of the king between them. They both giggled as they looked down the chamber to their target. A third reapette flew in and bumped into one of the two and sent it spinning around. The reapette unaffected let out a tiny giggle, before the third reapette flew up from beneath and bumped into the giggling reapette.

The three reapettes were alone in a chamber covered with kobil. Angry kobil that were no longer concerned with their next meal.

Two kobil split up and caressed the purple kobil covered walls. Ribbons of darkness waved across the walls as their purple color was drained with their lives.

Eventually the two kobil came face to face when they were at the other end of the chamber. They dodged one another, with one of the reapettes flying upside-down to continue its dark stream of smoke that yanked black images from each kobil it caressed.

As for the third kobil, it took a dive straight to Pit. The boy knew danger was coming though and he waited eagerly for it. The reapette never saw what was coming though.

Pit quickly ducked out of the way and the speedy reapette bashed its body into the side of Medusa's black cauldron. The reapette fell to the ground next to the fire and coughed up smoke from its ugly skeletal mouth.

The reapette looked around to the circle of purple it was in. Angry single eyed demons all wiggled their fat bottoms ready to pounce. The first one lunged at the reapette, then the second and third, but the agile reapette was able to dodge each one. After a few dodges and spins, the reapette took off beneath of the cauldron through the fire to evade the onslaught of kobil.

Pit struggled free from the kobil that held onto him, then leapt onto the side of the cauldron. One misstep would have his foot in boiling water spiced with a blend of kobil vegetables.

The boy used Toodles on a chain to keep himself from slipping in as he tried to keep balance.

Meanwhile, the fat bottomed little kobil realized their meals were about to escape. Well not quite escape considering Toodles was still chained. They were angry and some climbed on the large cooking pot to grab him.

Pit however, grabbed onto the angel and pushed off of the solid cooking pot to swing them like a pendulum. Many of the kobil confused by the chaos watched with their eyes at the two swinging back and forth. One by one, Pit kicked into the kobils that tried to grab them.

Each time Pit would kick one of them, he pushed off and swung further from the pot only to come back to the center each time. No kobil could stop them, and if there was a kobil that could stop them, they were busy with the two reapettes creating havoc. Each reapette would cover a shadow across the purple kobil and then giggle to itself with boned jaws.

Eventually, one of the kobil tried to outsmart the boy and his angel. Even with the chain swinging, a kobil climbed down from the top of the chain from the ceiling of the chamber. There it was, inch by inch, determined to get Pit without having its face kicked.

Pit looked up to see the kobil high above Toodles and the boy climbed up the body of his angel until he was standing on the shoulders of his angel. Pit told Toodles, "Hold still!"

They continued to swing back and forth as Toodles waved its feet back and forth to avoid the grabby kobil claws. Pit took a foot hold on the angel's blonde mopped head as the boy fought with the kobil on the chain.

After the struggle and a stalemate, a black image of the kobil overcame the purple body as the kobil withered away. The darkened body fell off of the chain and plunged into the boiling water to reveal a reapette on the chain.

The reapette giggled in delight to see Pit. Its jaw had crooked teeth and its tiny eye sockets were missing eyes. Just as the reapette climbed down head first to steal Pit's soul, the boy flipped upside-down and kicked the reapette into a pack of kobil. Pit was able to keep hold of the chain after the kick.

With the reapettes distracted and the kobil defending their territory, this was Pit's chance. He spotted a hole in the ceiling where the chain came through. "There must be another chamber above," said the boy to himself.

He quickly climbed the chain as it wobbled from Toodle's tiny kicking feet covered by grabby kobil. Three kobil held onto the angel while Pit climbed at a furious pace to the top of the tall chamber. Collin's training was paying off for the boy who was at the top in no time.

When Pit popped through the hole in the ceiling he was in a warm place. It was dark except for a single beam of light from the chamber below him. The boy's face was lit as he looked to where the chain went up to. He couldn't see the top of the chain, so he put his foot to the other side of the hole. The chain divided Pit's body before the boy crouched down and took a hold of the chain.

He then began to pull the chain up an arm length at a time. Arm length by arm length, the chain went up and up until Pit screamed, "You need a diet!"

"It's not me," yelled Toodles.

Pit quipped, "Then it must be the rocks in your pocket!"

The angel yelled, "Togas don't have pockets!" The angel itself was light as a feather, because if it was not, the tiny wings would never be able to carry its body. The thing that weighed the chain down was the three kobil that hung onto Toodles. Their eyes shifted around, because they had never been that high in the chamber before.

One kobil fell off, followed by a second that tried to flap its teensy wings. It was no use though, they both fell on top of the kobil community with the second crashing on the head of the first.

As for Pit, he wasn't looking into the hole. With every umph he had his head up as he pulled the chain up. His eyes even closed with an arg of strength from his little arms. The small demons were only the height of Pit's waist and many would consider Pit a runt of a boy.

He was so busy pulling the chain up that he never noticed that one of the three kobil crawled up the chain. Soon the kobil climbed through the hole and that is when Pit's hand grabbed a hold of the kobil's wing.

With a scream, Pit booted the kobil away with his sandal. The boy's bottom dropped down to the ground and Pit was almost dragged into the hole. Instead, Pit was able to brace his sandals at the edge of the opening.

Meanwhile, the cycloptic purple creature twitched its wings in the darkness. Pit could hear the sound, but because of the circular chamber, there was no telling where it came from.

The boy kept pulling his angel up until Toodle's head popped through the hole. The angel said, "Oh hi Icarus!"

Once Toodles was completely through the hole, the purple kobil appeared in the beam of light. Its pinchers chattered strange sounds as it was poised to grab the angel.

Toodles began to scream, "Icarus! Icarus!" Then the chubby little demon lunged toward the angel only to get stuffed down the hole by Pit. The boy used his hand and sent the hungry demon hurtling down into the kobil community.

Pit untangled the small angel from the chain. There were no braces to hold Toodles, nor any fancy knots. It was just an entanglement of chain that had kept the angel from falling.

Once freed, the two of them climbed further up to the next chamber. As for the reapettes, they continued to wreak havoc amongst the kobil community. Their ignorant little souls were torn from their body as they withered away into darkened black husks.

The boy and his guardian angel continued upward toward Medusa's underground palace. It loomed over their heads like a storm cloud. It was silent, creepy, dark and hidden in the shadows, but to make it there, they still had a garden of thorns to get to it.

The green thorn plants lived off of the balmy steam that rose from the lava pools that came from towering black rock formations. The green garden rose up the walls of a valley that from a distance looked beautiful with a lava red hue. Cascading lava fell from peak to plateau and lit the way for Pit and his guide.

In the garden valley, it was not just Medusa that watched them; it was now every creature that lurked in a gauntlet between the two travelers and the palace. The lava itself had eyes, if not dozens of eyes looking at them.

Darkened and dreary statues perked up as Pit and Toodles walked by. These were statues forged by Medusa's evil magic that sustained them. They became awakened by the scent of Pit's human sweat and watched as the two travelers tread near them. Each statue had a face that looked big, comical but monstrously menacing. Some statues had candles in their eyes. Others had candles in their mouths that guided the path through the garden up the wall of the underground valley.

To hasten their pace, a reapette managed to pop through the chain hole from the kobil community. The reapette giggled with delight and basked in the light that streamed from the opening. It did a little twirl and let out another giggle as a cloud of smoke formed around its body. Then the evil little skeletal minion coughed at its own smoke before it continued upward.


	16. Chapter 16: McGoo

CHAPTER 16: MCGOO

Atop a series of clouds high in the heavens are a series of magical mirrors. Each is rimmed with gold and reflective with a dull grey darkness because of the sky that reflects within it. Thousands of mirrors that had been there since before mortal time began.

The series of mirrors lit up with white from lightning cast from the storm clouds below. These mirrors were originally how Palutena warmed the world with her beauty. The final mirror in the series of mirrors was a fixture on Mt. Olympus, the tallest of all mountains in the mortal world.

That final mirror was on a set of gears dipped in gold. The giant gear went around the entire peak of Mt. Olympus. The peak is a point that no mortal had ever seen, nor did anyone ever tell a tall tale of seeing what's at the peak.

Palutena's light would beam from mirror to mirror until one of the larger mirrors sent light straight down upon the peak of Mt. Olympus where the light would be distributed by a beveled mirror. With the passing of each minute in a day, the mirror would slowly rotate around the mountain to shine light down upon the mortal world.

Suddenly in that mirror atop Mt. Olympus appeared the hideous single eye of Medusa. It was yellow with a stripe of black in the center. Her eye was so blood shot that if she were a mortal, it would mean that she hadn't slept in days, but because she is a goddess, it means that she hasn't slept in millennia.

A green slip of an eyelid covered the eye as she blinked. Then she stepped back to reveal her hideous face. Even devoid of Palutena's light, Medusa's ugly could still be seen. It wasn't a face that could just turn any living thing to stone, but it could cut through the dark of never ending night.

The terrifying goddess was merely testing out this technology forged by the gods. Her face shined down upon the mortal land, and more importantly to Pit, her reflection shined down upon a mirror near another mountain. From that mirror, the reflection bounced off another series of mirrors through Medusa's underworld palace. There second to last mirror had a drape over it.

Medusa never wanted Palutena's light in the underworld before, so she had covered each of the mirrors. However, a team of large red slugs on top of the mirror worked on one of the drapes. They systematically ate the large dust covered drape and with each bite, they tugged the drape upward until the mirror was uncovered.

Outside of Medusa's palace on the underworld side stood a giant mirror that originally shined Palutena's light down a few hours each day. It was covered with a drape, but stood tall in a garden of stone citizens. The ugly garden was once human and spanned Medusa's entire courtyard that was covered with blue shermum snakes.

A team of red slugs slowly propelled themselves up the side of the final draped mirror. Each slug had a yellow underbelly and a gaping mouth with two eyes protruding above their slimy heads. Each slug left a trail of slime as they churned their bodies up the mirror's edge.

Meanwhile, Pit continued his climb up the thorny green valley lit by lava's red glow. Depending on where Pit stood, the thorns lined up to make faces on the green plants. There was little to no where safe for Pit to be in this gauntlet of a garden.

Toodles was tired and flickered. In fact Toodles was so tired, that it clung onto Pit's back. They looked like a two headed four winged creature forged by a god's magic with the head of a boy and the head of a blonde mop.

The lava pits that lit the valley made Pit's wings melt. He left gooey white drops along the ground that made a path straight to him.

Eyes in the lava were watching him. Sometimes it was only three eyes, other times it was six or nine. Whatever the number, it was always divisible by three. Pit would occasionally stop to wipe his brow as he looked to the lava that blinked at him.

Toodles would inspire him, "Don't stop meatbag!"

Pit's wings drooped with sorrow from the heat. With the combination of the four wings, the two of them together made the shadows of butterflies on the valley walls.

Hideous stone statues continued to glare at Pit, but never shift their posture until Pit went past them. Toodles warned Pit, "We need to get through here before we're found."

It was obvious to Pit, "They already know we're here."

"I know," said Toodles, "I just meant we should move through before something worse happens!" As Toodles commented, the lava slowly manipulated itself to make a glob that stood. It wasn't a bubble, but instead it was just a mound of lava in one of the red pools.

The big glob began to spin, rotate and spatter lava in the valley. The glob had Toodle's attention and the angel kicked with legless feet, "Go Icarus go!"

The spattering got worse as the red glowing molten rock landed near Pit. From the red glob came three eyes that formed a hand instead of a face and threw a balloon of lava at Pit.

The three eyed hand had poor aim and it ended up stuck to the valley wall next to Pit. It wiggled like gelatin as Pit stared at it. The hand went back into the water and the three eyes disappeared.

Pit's guardian angel kicked and encouraged him, "Mush! Get going!" The gelatin grew in size as it continued to wiggle. Pit bolted through a patch of thorn bushes before the red gelatin bubble burst.

There were droplets of red lava spattered on the thorny plants. The gelatin began to melt through the plants and created little edges of fire.

More three eyed hands slowly surfaced from the pools of Lava as Pit continued his climb. Each one had a palm of red molten rock to throw at the duo as they approached.

Pit had to avoid, dodge and leap over globs of red gelatin. Spatters of lava droplets trailed after the two of them as Pit continued his ascension.

Each blob of lava set the thorn plants on fire. Soon Pit had to contend with flames that crawled upward as fast as he could.

When Pit climbed onto the next plateau of black rock, a hand of lava slammed down from a red pool in front of his face. Pit looked in shock at the hand in front of his face. Then three eyes materialized from the ooze and looked at Pit.

Once one of the eyes blinked at Pit, he took off up the next wall of rock and thorns. The lava hand soon oozed its way back into the red pool as other hands aimed for the boy.

Each thrown glob of lava stuck to the walls above Pit and slowly dripped down. Pit was forced to quickly climb down, but that was before each glob of lava began to pop on the sharp thorns.

Pit dropped down back first with the angel and the boy screaming all the way down. They landed with an "oof" that came from Pit's mouth. Then to dodge the droplets, Pit rolled over to the side a few times. All while Toodles screamed in his ear out of fear.

The droplets covered the rock ground and Toodles exclaiming, "Next time, can ya fall face first?"

Pit rolled to his hands and knees and said, "Sure." He left the angel on its back with a red hand slowly forming in the lava next to him. He then grabbed the angel by its right hand and dragged the angel away as the new three eyed hand looked at them.

Then the hand looked angry as the angel and boy got away. There were dozens of eyes around the hand that each looked to the hand. That is when the eyes of the hand looked to the others with an idea.

As Pit looked for the next plateau to climb that wasn't completely covered with thorns, he asked, "Why do they want to shake my hand?"

"They are McGoo," replied the angel, "They aren't lava."

Pit wondered, "So are you telling me to shake their hand?"

"They are," uttered the blonde angel as it clung to Pit's back once again, "But they are still different. They are a gooey substance that can contain lava." Then the angel pointed out, "Up there!"

Pit saw across the lava pool an almost clear path up to the next plateau. There were barely any thorn plants, but to get there he had to cross a pool of lava that had dozens of angry eyes that looked back to him.

The only way to get to the next plateau was to go around the pool of lava, so Pit began to race around the edge. His wings wiggled and dripped wax with a steady drizzle as the dozens of eyes began to rise from the lava.

It was a large lava pool, more like a pond. Pit had his head down as he charged around the pool. The lava manipulated itself into a giant blob that stood up from the red pond. The dozens of eyes were all contained within the blob for now as it continued to rise like some giant bubble.

There was another problem for Pit though; he found a stream of lava that couldn't be crossed. He stopped in his sandals with a trail of dust that wafted forward into the lava stream.

Toodles merely looked to the blob of lava that was twice the height of a mortal man. The angel then commented, "By Zeus's beard, they work together after all!"

Pit asked, "What?"

"Its nothing," said Toodles, "We just always speculated they couldn't do that."

Pit looked to the spire of lava that towered above him as the eyes began to emerge from the blob. Teams of three eyes slowly worked their way toward the sides of the spire before they emerged as hands from the towering blob.

Toodles looked in awe, "Wow."

Meanwhile, Pit was busy looking for a way across the stream. Next to him was a stalagmite; a tall one at that. The boy ran a distance away from the stalagmite, before he turned back around. He dashed as fast as he could at the black spike and leapt at it. He smashed his foot into the stalagmite and then fell to his butt.

"Unpredictable mortal," said Toodles, "Why did you do that?" Nothing had happened at all. A boy slamming his body into a stalagmite that looked to be older than his mother's mother's mother's mother didn't do anything.

"I thought I'd try," retorted Pit who was still on his posterior.

A red light soon covered the two of them and got brighter. Toodles looked up and then hopped off Pit and saying, "Every immortal for itself!"

Pit then looked up with a strange face and the lava tower bent forward toward him before he stood up and darted away. The lava spire smashed down into the ground where Pit was.

It was a huge blob of gelatin that separated them both. It oozed, glowed and wiggled. Hands reached out from the fallen spire to grab at both Pit and the angel on different sides. The eyes of each hand were angry and frustrated. Their dismay could easily be seen with the gestures shown from the hands.

The hands swiped and dove back into the fallen spire and back out again. It was a repeating pattern. On the other side, Toodles fluttered its wings and hovered over the fallen spire to Pit.

With grace and ease, the angel fluttered back down to Pit and landed in the boy's arms. The angel then said, "I hope you're not angry at me for leaving you there."

The pupil in Pit's visible blue eye became a spec from the incredible red light in front of him. As for the hands, then began to push and shove on the opposite side of Pit. They had an idea, to roll the fallen spire closer to the boy.

Pit was caught between a thick fallen spire and a stream of lava. The spire crept slowly and almost patheticly toward Pit. Two hands kept stretched out at the boy as he stepped backward toward the lava stream.

That is when a dark shadow popped up from behind the fallen spire in a distance. It was the reapette that searched everywhere for Pit. Smoke slowly cloaked the giggling dark figure.

It was unseen by Pit who kept his blue eyes on the hands of the spire. He eventually looked behind him to notice that he was out of room. There was no where to jump with lava around him. The only way was up. It was either up thorn plants or up the stalagmite.

So Pit chose the stalagmite. With his sandals, he climbed the very tall floor spike. Toodles even helped by fluttering its wings to make Pit light. Eventually Toodles commented, "I can see why you mortals don't have wings, you'd too heavy."

The reapette noticed Pit from a distance and with a giggle then a shriek; it bellowed smoke on its way to the boy. The fallen spire had crept itself far enough to almost to the stalagmite.

Toodles tugged and pulled on Pit, until they were both at the top of the tall floor spike. Below them was an intense glowing red light. Next to them was a wall of green thorns.

Pit commented, "Uh oh." The fallen spire began to engulf the base of the stalagmite.

Toodles peered to the side and said the same thing, "Uh oh." The angel could see the small skeletal face of the reapette as it screeched toward them.

Then the angel and the boy grabbed each other along with the stalagmite and yelled, "Uh oh!" The stalagmite began to shift and the reapette began to giggle its twisted jaw.

Quickly thereafter, the reapette zoomed over their heads, because the stalagmite began to fall over toward the lava stream. Pit was ready for it though, because of how slowly the stalagmite fell. He poised himself on it and when the peak plunged into the lava stream he leapt the remaining distance to the other side. The boy's body barrel rolled as Toodles gracefully fluttered its wings.

The fallen lava spire rolled into the lava stream behind Pit as the giggling reapette changed its course. Pit took off for the almost cleared path to the next plateau.

Meanwhile, Toodles hovered above Pit's head and the angel panted and huffed to keep up with the boy. The reapette waited and lurked on the plateau above the boy's head.

As for the lava spire, as it slowly submerged back into the lava, several hands shook their fists at the boy in anger. Same even heaved globs of lava at Pit to no avail.

When Pit climbed up to the next plateau, he was met by flames that became the back drop for his climb. Instead of climbing near thorn plants, he would have to climb near flames.

Toodles said, "oh me," and Pit added, "oh my." That was their assessment of the problem. The thorn plants were each dried up on the inside as they have never lived off water.

The reapette perked up from one of the flames with a giggle. Its jaw was twisted and contorted. Then the cloaked skeleton took a lunge at Pit who dodged the reapette.

As the boy dodged the reapette, he caught onto the tiny cloak and the skeletal body went flying without it. Pit was left with a tiny black cloak in his hand while the skeleton flew to the plateau they had just come from.

The small skeleton wasn't able to fly without its cloak. Instead it tumbled across the ground where it stood up angry. There was no giggling, instead it stomped the ground, pouted and paced about.

Then a single three eyed hand slammed onto the small skeleton. It was as if swatting a doll to the ground. The skeleton then let out a giggle before the hand pulled it away.

Pit kept a hold of the smoke emiting cloak before he looked at it. Toodles gave the cloak a glance too before the angel wondered, "I bet I could wear it if I lost some weight."

The boy commented, "I thought you weigh as much as air."

Toodles rebutted, "That's still heavy dude."

The cloak then dissipated into smoke. Pit was left holding nothing, before he let out a single couch from the thick black smoke. They were left to turn around and face the flames that stood in their way.

Over the crackle of fire a calming masculine voice called to the boy, "May thou have a word with thee Pit?"

Toodles exclaimed with glee, "God of gods Zeus!"

Pit merely looked to all of the flames and wondered, "Which one are you Lord Zeus?"


	17. Chapter 17: Zeus

A crackling inferno towered over Pit and Toodles as Pit still wondered which of the flames Zeus was. Finally, the god broke the boy's concentration and told him, "This way Pit."

The voice drew them through a narrow path between the flames. It was dangerous and the boy's wings sagged and left a trail of wax along the path. Toodles hopped on Pit's back to avoid the terrible flames. Pit looked to Toodles when the blonde angel jumped on his back.

Eventually, the two of them came to the opening of another chamber in the side of the valley. The voice calmly hark them, "In here."

Finally, they were in a new chamber safe from the flames. The chamber was completely dark except for a red light that pierced through the entrance. The long flickering red light guided Pit until there was no light anymore.

Pit asked, "Where are you?"

The voice calmly stated, "I am always all around you."

"But," he started to say, "I don't see a talking flame."

The voice of Zeus asked, "How has thee fared with my last gift?"

The boy's wings continued to melt and drizzle to the ground. He spoke up and said, "I haven't had a chance to use the bronze arrow yet." Behind Pit was the long red stream of flickering light that dwarfed the boy by comparison.

Toodles dropped to the ground and flickered a little. The angel couldn't illuminate that much anymore.

"That is exactly why thou hast summoned thee," said the warm voice of Zeus. He then asked, "Thou hast no bow."

Pit shrugged his shoulders and said, "I do not know where it fell to. It was a gift too."

The calm voice uttered, "Everything is a gift in one way or another. Every day of your survival has been granted by some miracle."

The angel cried out, "Look!" With the gesture of its hand, there was Pit's bow on an illuminated white pedestal. The boy almost ran to the pedestal, but he stopped himself.

Zeus wondered, "Why did thee stop?"

The boy looked to the pedestal and with a hush tone, he said, "You do not give me things Lord Zeus." After that was said, a monolith fell from the ceiling and shattered into millions of pieces on the floor. It was a test.

Zeus commented, "Thee must earn thy favor, this is true."

Pit jumped as another monolith shattered on the floor in the stream of flickering light. Then another smashed in the darkness of the room and another. Pit and his angel looked to the sound of each monolith.

The boy shouted, "Is this a blind test?"

Zeus merely stated in a calm voice, "This be only a parameter for the next test."

"Para-what," questioned the boy only to hear his angel ally mutter, "It's like the board for a game."

"Or the field of battle," elaborated Zeus. Another monolith smashed on the ground in the darkness.

Then the two travelers could hear the sound of a galloping animal. Pit wondered, "Is that a horse?" Two red eyes appeared in the darkness ahead of them low on the floor of the chamber. That was followed by a simple scratching sound on the floor that interrupted a dead silence.

Zeus's voice had malevolence to it as he uttered, "This is only a test for Pit."

The angel Toodles retorted, "I have no intention on helping him." The scratches in the darkness stopped, but the red eyes didn't blink, nor did they shift from the boy and his angel.

The god informed them, "Thou will make sure thee shall not interfere." In the blink of an eye, Zeus's power transformed Toodles into a large bubble with the diameter of the angel's height. The bubble had a blonde mop atop of its head and an angelic white tint with a pair of angel's wings that protruded out of the top of the bubble.

Pit was in shock and screamed, "Why did you do that?"

"It is not thou concern to question thee," boomed the voice of Zeus. He continued, "Mortals do not wonder the things that gods do. They should merely be happy that we give them what they need to flourish."

Zeus's voice calmed a little, as he pointed out, "Thee bubble that has helped thou so much may burst on this ground covered in broken glass." The twin wings of the bubble fluttered a tiny bit, but not enough to support the airy sphere in the air. When the wings fluttered, the bubble spun around and bounced off the ground without any sort of control.

Then the scratches could be heard again on the rock floor of the chamber. The sound had Pit's attention and his stance changed to brace for any movement of the sound.

The red eyed beast bellowed an enormous, "Mooooooooooo!" It charged forward with its hooves galloping on the floor into what little light was in the room. Smoke came from the beast's nose; it had red eyes, a twin pair of sharp horns and a broad body.

It was a bull, a bull that could eat other bulls, but not just that, it had wings on its giant back. Pit was tiny compared to it, even his father Collin would be small compared to the beast. Hooves charged forward and in the way were Pit and his bubble named Toodles.

The boy quickly lifted his bubble above his head and moved just as the bull's horns tried to gore him. The bull's head flicked up in the air to pop either the bubble or Pit's lungs.

When the bull missed impaling Pit, and skid into the stream of flickering red light. The bull's big head looked to Pit and shook from side to side as its body lined up with the boy again. The sound of crunching glass came from beneath of the bull's hooves.

As Pit held the bubble above his head, its wings fluttered. Another monolith fell from the ceiling and smashed between Pit and the bull. The beast didn't flinch even with glass flying about. Instead it began to scratch on the floor with one of its front hooves.

That is when Pit noticed the bull had something tied to its long neck. It was a different bow, a blue bow with golden trim that looked sleek. The shame was the fact that it was tied to the bull's neck.

"It is a long bow," Zeus informed him, "With it you shall be able to fire an arrow until it disappears into the sun."

Pit asked, "This is not a test!"

Zeus's voice calmly echoed, "This is a choice Pit." After a pause, the voice continued, "If thou drop your angelic guide, thou can not only survive, but thou can get to the bow on the pedestal and get thy bow in order to defeat the bull." The god began to slowly state, "It is your choice; your test."

The twin wings of the bubble fluttered to no avail.

As for the bull it flapped its large wings twice to propel itself charging forward. It came crunching across the glass that covered the floor toward Pit. The bull's horns aimed at the boy and Pit tossed the bubble into the air.

Pit rolled to the side through the glass as he avoided the reach of the bull's massive horns. After the roll, Pit managed to gently catch the large bubble before it hit the glass covered ground.

The bull tilted its body and continued in a giant U to race back toward Pit. It didn't give the boy enough time to think. The beast flapped its wings to propel itself forward and lowered its head to lance through Pit.

Instead of dodging the bull's horns, he ran up the bull's head between the horns with the bubble in tow. The bull began to screech to a halt as Pit ran across the bull's spine and then jumped off into the glass.

Once the bull came to a halt, it turned around and flapped its large wings and bobbed its head down to spear Pit. The boy jumped back, but the bull swung its head further as it tromped further. Another narrow miss, until Pit was forced to throw Toodles bubble in the air.

The horns jammed into the floor with Pit trapped between them. Smoke came from the bulls nose and mouth as drool and foam spewed everywhere. Pit was eye to eye with the beast's crazed red eyes. The bull continued to drive its head deeper into the rock ground as Pit yelled and screamed from terror.

With the bubble, its wings fluttered to lower its decent as Toodles was frightened more than Pit. The bubble was frightened from the glass on the floor and the stalactites that drooped from the ceiling.

Eventually, the bull tried to bite the boy. Pit soon stood up on his sandals from the crunching glass. The bull's sharp horns were still jammed in the ground. Then Pit made the mistake of reaching for the new bow tied to the beast's neck.

The ground was thrown into the air as the bull's horns ripped from the rock. Pit was thrown fanny first into the glass again. At least he was wearing a toga to protect his posterior.

The wings on the bull's back flapped twice to give the bull another jumping start. The bull's horns came crashing down into the rock near Pit's olive skinned body.

Meanwhile, the bubble fluttered and floated further into the darkness. Pit stood up and ran to his bubble friend with glass crunching underneath of his sandals.

Behind him, the bull tromped and followed him. The bull was too massive to run quick at the start, but the horns gained on the boy.

Pit jumped up with his arms in the air and grabbed the bubble with his hands. When the boy landed he turned around only to see the glowing red eyes charging at him.

But what neither the bull, the boy or the bubble noticed was the monolith that had fallen from the ceiling. The monolith crashed over the broad back of the bovine and sent it sliding into Pit. The bull's big body collided with Pits and sent them both sliding into a wall. Pit was pinned between rock and a beast.

The bull continued to breathe heavily while it pinned Pit. The bubble fluttered its wings and ended up turning end over end as it slowly fell to the glass covered floor.

Pit was in a daze, but eventually he saw the bubble on its way end over end to being popped on the floor. The boy tried to heave the bull's massive neck off of his body. It was no use, but then Pit noticed the new blue bow was next to him, still tied to the beast's neck.

The boy tried to grab the bow and free it from the beast's neck. The bubble continued to try to flutter away from the floor, but had no control.

The bull's red eyes opened and smoke came from the beast's nose once more from its heavy breaths. Pit just couldn't get the bow free; it had been tied by a god. The beast's large wings began to flap as the beast awoke.

Another monolith smashed into the floor and the bull's head rose off of Pit's body. The boy continued to struggle in order to free the blue bow. Instead, he ended up looking to the bubble about to hit the floor.

With the bull's head freeing Pit's body, the boy ran across the ground and took a dive. He tumbled and rolled from the friction under his body. The bubble then bounced off his stomach with an, "oof" that came from Pit's gun.

The bubble was safe and the brooding bull was up. Wings flapped at the side of the bull in order for it to gain its wits. The bull then began to scratch the floor once more.

Pit stared into the dead glare of the twin red eyes. He then glanced to the pedestal with his original bow. It was close, but the bow needs to be an accurate weapon when it comes to being victorious against a massive charging bull.

The boy threw his body into gear, he charged across the glass with another monolith that shattered on the ground. The bull began its charge. Pit went away from the bull, while the beast did its best to close the distance.

When Pit came to the pedestal, he picked up the bow and reached to the quiver on his back. The bull's red eyes came closer and closer with the horns between them and Pit's body. Toodles continued to flip end over end through the air.

That is when Pit realized that his quiver was empty. Neither one of his two magical arrows were in the quiver, because they had fallen out when Pit was hit by the bull.

Pit had no seconds to spare, so he charged at the bull. The beast lowered its head to gore through Pit, and the nimble boy had a plan. He tried to leap over the bull's head, but instead the bull bucked him high into the air.

The boy's body flew end over end until he landed with a thud on the ground. Pit was stomach first in the glass and was groggy. He held his head and said, "uhhh."

Meanwhile, the bull flapped a single wing to turn around without stopping. Pit was still in a daze, he had no idea where his bow went to, let alone where his arrows were, he didn't realize the bull was in front of him waiting in the darkness. The one thing that he did know was his angelic friend was gracefully falling to the ground.

Pit shook off the daze he was in and cradled his wounds. The red eyes had a cold stare at Pit from the darkness as the bull charged again toward the boy.

Young Icarus stumbled and hunched over as he ran toward Toodles. He grabbed the bubble and went toward the exit of the chamber. Pit had enough and he only wanted to keep his life and Toodles.

He followed the steam of flickering red light and needed to hasten his pace with the bull after him. Suddenly, the stomping from the bull gained Pit's attention. He looked back to see the bull's body in a red light as it leapt into the air with its front hooves running and its head held high.

Pit fell backward in fear and the bubble was sent into the air. The bull's horns came charging downward and stabbed the ground between Pit's part legs. The boy uttered, "I am so lucky!"

The bull began to twist its neck to free its horns from the ground. Its wings flapped and tried to heave the body from the ground its horns were lodged in.

With the beast's horns stuck in the ground, Pit placed his left foot firmly on the beast's neck. He began to untie the rope around the beast's wide neck.

Eventually, Pit cried out, "Its free! I got the bow!"

Once the bow was free, the beast was too and it used its big head to swat Pit away like a bug. Pit flew through the air and slammed into a darkened corner of the chamber. His wings were so battered at this point they were barely hanging on.

The bow had flown from his hand, but Pit could see where it was. The bow was next to the bronze arrow that Zeus had given him. Pit muttered, "Thank you Zeus for conveniently putting the arrow there."

Both items were however between the boy and the bull. Pit ran forward as the bull leapt forward with its wings to gain momentum. The boy dove and did a summersault in the glass into the stream of flickering red light.

He looked toward the entrance of the chamber as the bull charged away from it. Pit could see the flames outside of the chamber that turned the bull into a long black shadow that engulfed Pit in the distance.

When Pit rolled out of the summersault he knelt on one knee and he had the arrow and bow in hand. He readied his arrow and had his long bangs across one of his beautiful blue eyes. With his breath held, Pit uttered, "Did I ace my test?"

The arrow was released and it was sent directly into one of the red eyes of the great beast. Pit screamed, "Bulls-eye!" Even with an arrow in the eye of the bull, that didn't stop its charge.

The hooves galloped forward and Pit braced for impact of the beast. Just as the beast was about to lance Pit, it turned into a purple mist that acted like a wave and crashed into Pit's body. The mist was thick and swirled through the chamber as Pit tried to see through it.

He commented, "It tastes like grapes." The bubble then floated over Pit's head upside-down without Pit noticing it.

Then the bubble popped and Toodle's came out of the bubble. The angel fell like a stone on its head. Toodles then screamed, "I don't ever wanna do that again! I think I'm gonna be sick dude!"

With a laugh, Zeus quipped, "If you think that is bad, wait until you see what Medusa did to the other angels."

After that was said, a bronze arrow magically materialized in Pit's quiver. Pit began to walk toward the exit and the inferno outside. His little angel friend fluttered behind him and commented, "You know I was in the bubble right?"

"No," said Pit.

Toodles screeched with a terrible voice, "If it popped it would have let me out!"

"You should have told me," commented the boy.

Toodles continued, "Zeus never said anything about me popping, only the bubble. You should have understood that."

"I am a kid," said Pit, "What did you expect?"

The angel muttered, "Mankind is doomed!"

Pit told him, "Do not say that Toodles. We have made it this far."

"But its just one thing after another," screeched the angel who then wondered, "When will it end? I can't take this stress! My wings look terrible!" Then the angel looked to Pit's battered and half melted wings then commented, "But mine don't look as bad as yours Icarus."

Outside of the cavern, the underworld was in chaos and burning down. Death was summoned and the black cloaked reaper descended from the smoke that rippled in the air.

On top of the grand mirror in the underworld's palace courtyard, a team of red slugs continued to eat the tarp. Slugs do things very slowly and the process was taking a very long time.

Deep inside of the Kobil community, a new managed to lance the last remaining reapette with its staff. With chattering praise from the community, the kobil picked up the crown of the fallen king and adorned it.

Then finally, inside of Medusa's darkened palace, atop a balcony stood the single eyed eggplant wizard. The wizard had the best plan of all for Pit and it was snarling below the balcony.


	18. Chapter 18: The Death of Death

CHAPTER 18: THE DEATH OF DEATH

As Pit and his guardian angel approached the exit of Zeus's chamber, there were flickers of darkness that blackened out the red flame. Merely flickers, like waving ripples, but that did not stop the two as they left the chamber.

Outside of the safety of the chamber, the underworld was burning down. There were no more green thorn plants. Instead there were only towers of landscape on fire and Pit was in the center of it all.

The rippling darkness was created by the torn bits of cloak worn by the grim reaper that descended from a smoky black haze up above. The reaper of death loomed over them and looked down to them with its hollow eye sockets. Even with the bright flames lighting the reaper, its eyes were devoid of any light. Its cloak was still black and didn't catch any light from the flame.

Its sickle was in hand and its body was broadly spread out. A huge gust of wind blew the reaper's cowl from off of its skeletal head for the first time in a century. It was revealed that beneath of the minion's cowl was a plume of extremely long raven black hair that had grown for that century.

The boy and his angel stood perfectly still shocked at the sight they saw. The reaper's maw opened to let out an ear piercing shriek to acknowledge their presence.

Jaws dropped as Pit and Toodles glared at the hideous shrieking skeleton. Pit's stance was wide with his feet apart. His quiver dropped off of his back to the ground.

Then the two of them took off running, before Pit realized his quiver was gone. So he quickly returned into the reaper's gaze and put his hand on the quiver's mouth.

The reaper's scythe slammed down to the ground in the shoulder strap of the quiver. Then the scythe scraped along the rock ground and made a screech as Pit tried to pull his quiver away from the long scythe.

Long, raven black hair surrounded Pit and crept closer to him as the reaper remained shrieking as its catch. Toodles came back and tugged on Pit's wings to give him extra energy.

The bony left hand of the reaper came forward and amongst the shrieking reaper, the two heroes began to scream in fright. The reaper had them both like a fish on a hook as it raised its scythe blade into the air. Pit was literally picked up off the ground. Toodles struggled to maintain its own grip on the boy.

The scythe itself was sharp enough to cut any life string. It was sharp enough to bore through rock, and as Pit was brought to the face of the reaper, Pit could feel the lick of black hair on his body.

Pit's soul began to be torn from his body like a dark shadow. Pit was screaming and in the background, Medusa was cackling over her eminent victory.

But then the scythe cut through the shoulder strap and Pit fell to the rock ground with his angel left fluttering in the air. The angel waved to the reaper and said, "I like your hair."

The reaper's bony arm swiped at the angel as it dodged underneath. The angel whisked away screaming. Pit picked up his quiver and bolted like an arrow from it. He ran and the reaper gave chase.

Pit and Toodles headed up the steep side of a mountain and the reaper followed with its cloak caressing the flames as it flailed. The boy's wings teetered on his back as he climbed, jumped, leapt and pulled himself up quickly from one area to the next.

The reaper was always in pursuit and Toodles was always screaming at Pit to, "Hurry or you'll be human hotdogs!"

Even as a skeleton, it was the reaper's weight or cloak that held it back from moving as fast as Pit. Children move fast and they are virtually weightless.

After each platform and plateau, Pit went to the next huffing and puffing. He wasn't ready to slow his pace though. He was always in a sickles reach of being snatched off of the rock face.

His hands were slick and sweaty; he had a tough time keeping his grip on rocks when he would hang. It was like he had grease on them at some points. The boy would slip from his position or rock would give way.

Eventually, Pit rose up on the next plateau to discover another terrifying sight. There were no flames, because everything was made of stone. Pit was in Medusa's garden of stone statues. They were once living statues and Toodle's luminescence lit up each statue as the angel flew by.

Toodles ended up commenting, "Look at the craftsmanship on this one." The angel gestured to a statue that had a wart on its human face. Then the angel pointed to another, "I like the detail on her eyebrows!" Each human statue had an expression of terror on their faces. Some statues were caught in a running position with their face looking over their shoulder.

The angel looked at another statue and said, "How did the sculptor get their arms to stay on like that?"

Pit took a brief pause, not only to catch his breath, but look in horror at the petrified garden of mortals. They each looked toward Medusa's giant palace.

There must have been one thousand of them in that courtyard alone. It was densely populated with more people in it than any city Pit had ever been in. Pit was in awe that there could be so many people, let alone with them all turned to stone.

He slowly treaded through the garden and looked over the expressions of fright. The stone garden had wading pools, but instead of water in the pools there was gooey thick black water. There were skeletons of creatures and giant beasts that protruded from the thick black water.

There was dust and dirt covering the path that lead straight to Medusa's palace. The entryway to the palace was covered with dead roses, because when Medusa was beautiful, she chose only to walk on roses. Not just the roses, but their thorns as well.

To the north side of the massive courtyard was a giant round mirror that Toodles noticed. The angel kept pondering, "What is that?" From the angel's perspective, it could not see anything with the darkened reflection. There was nothing to see as it was.

The mirror was tall, and could swivel. There was a tarp on it and the tarp was covered with dozens of large red slugs. The angel fluttered up to the height of the mirror. The height of the mirror was thirty mortal men standing on each other's shoulders.

Toodles examined the red slugs and the angel muttered, "Netters." Their mouths would open wide and puff like a net, before they wrapped their mouth would suction cup down onto the tarp. Then they would slowly devour the tarp as they sucked it into their mouth and digested it with a never ending hunger.

The netters had the tarp virtually digested and there was little left draped over the mirror. Toodles then realized what it was for. The small angel whizzed through the air as it raced to Pit.

Pit was still in a daze looking over his fellow mortals to notice that the reaper now stalked him in silence. The reaper slowly crept forward toward Pit. The angel screamed out, "Icarus!"

Eventually, the angel caught Pit's attention and the boy looked toward Toodles and then looked behind him to see the reaper. The reaper took a swipe at Pit with its scythe, but Pit dodged it by leaping to a skeleton in the wading pool.

Pit clutched onto the big skeleton of what was once a lion or at least a big cat. He refused to touch the dark water; for fear that there was a reason why all of the beasts in it were skeletons.

As for the reaper, it had no fear of the water, because it was already a skeleton. The reaper leapt into the water with its body soaring high in the air. There was no splash when the reaper plunged in, because tar does not splash. The reaper was in the tar while Pit carefully leapt from one skeleton to the next to avoid the dark, soul stealing assassin.

The reaper was bogged down, but still strong from Medusa's magic. Speaking of Medusa, she watched them all and cackled. Her voice echoed over the courtyard, "You will join my garden of stone!"

Pit uttered confidently, "No way!"

The reaper pulled its tar covered hand out of the tar and tried to keep its sickle out of the mire. Using only one hand to crawl through the tar wasn't efficient, but the reaper wasn't ready to give up its sythe.

Toodles still streamed through the air screaming at "Icarus!" The mirror gave a wink. There were fangs on the mirror.

Pit leapt to safety at the other end of the wading pool and looked to Toodles, "What?" When Pit looked over to the angel, it threw dirt in his eyes. Pit was blind and the reaper was unrelenting to the tar that it was stuck in.

The boy screamed with the dirt in his eyes and asked Toodles, "Why did you do that?" The mirror winked again as a face came into focus. It was Medusa's hideous green face with only a single eye to see.

Dozens of reflecting mirrors used to shine light upon the world were now used by Medusa to turn everything to stone with her gaze. Anyone that would gaze upon any of the mirrors with Medusa's mug on it would be turned to stone.

Her gaze was so potent that it could turn anything to stone. The catch is they had to look at her. Pit was blinded by the dirt that Toodles threw in his eyes. The angel refused to look at the mirror, but the reaper however was facing the giant mirror.

A shell of stone slowly formed over the reaper from its feet up. It was like a wave that went up its ugly skeletal body. It shrieked from either pain or the astonishment of being stopped.

Pit and Toodles both peered over the shrieking reaper that had its left hand planted in the tar. Pit winced from the dirt in his eyes.

As stone came over the reaper's body, it peeled its hand from the tar. The shriek became a scream as its waist was turned to stone. With the reaper's last movement, it drew back its right arm with its sickle in hand. Then the reaper threw the sickle toward Pit.

The scythe spun in a circle as it sliced through the air toward a blind Pit. The screams subsided as the reaper was turned completely to stone with its jaw open and its arms rose in anger.

Toodles shoved Pit to the stone ground in an act of selflessness and the angel was battered by the sickle instead of Pit. The angel tumbled to the ground and rolled over until it finally flumped face down.

With the reaper turned to stone, Medusa screamed so loudly that it shattered every single mirror that had been used to show off her ugly mug. Dozens of mirrors broke across the overworld, atop mountains and in her palace. The netters wobbled atop the mirrors before the angry rage subsided.

Pit stood up rubbing his eyes until his vision somewhat returned. It was difficult enough to see as it was let alone having dirt in his eyes. There were only torches around the courtyard that lit up things along the walkways.

Once Pit could see he looked back at the reaper to see it turned into stone with its arms rose. There was a minor celebration with Pit as he exclaimed, "With the reaper turned to stone, it cannot reform right?" There was no response and Pit wondered, "Right Toodles?"

The boy looked behind him and wondered, "Toodles?" There was the angel slumped over face down. Pit darted to his guardian angel saddened without a clue what had happened to the angel. Toodle's body was dim without even a flicker of light.

Pit screamed his name, "Toodles!" There was no response, so he cried out, "Angels do not die. They blink out of existence! You told me that."

He fell to his knees and tried stirring the angel. After a few tries to wake the angel, he flipped the delicate angel onto its back. The angel's yellow bangs still draped over its eyes to its nose.

With his hand on the angel's shoulder he said, "Wake up sleepy head, get up from your bed." There was no movement from the angel, so Pit said what his father would tell him, "I will get water mister and dump it on you." Then Pit looked over to the black tar and the stone reaper and commented, "You do not want me to dump that water on you!"

Then Pit's body lost its posture with an exhale and he looked down to his guardian angel. His bangs draped over one side of his face. He sat there for a moment and merely looked around ignoring what was in front of him. When he finally decided to stop ignoring the situation, he swept away his bangs from off of his eye to reveal her had shed a long tear down his face underneath his bangs.

There was a sniffle from Pit's throat and he felt alone even surrounded by a thousand people.


	19. Chapter 19: The Underground Palace

CHAPTER 19: THE UNDERWORLD PALACE

From across a garden of stone statues came a chilling howl. A second howl started in stereo with the other. It was an eerie, echoing howl that grabbed Pit's attention.

He looked up from his slumped, kneeling position. There were hundreds of stone statues obscuring his view, but he could see Medusa's underworld palace from there.

There was howling laughter through the stereophonic howls. Once they subsided, the laughter still remained. Atop of a balcony that overlooked the garden was the Eggplant Wizard. His laugh was notably different than any other laugh a human had heard. It was a quirky laugh, "Oh ha heh ha. Ah ha heh ha!" The laughter bellowed across the garden into Pit's ears.

Once the, "Ah ha heh ha"ing laughter had subsided, the Eggplant Wizard unfurled its cape and shouted with a chubby mouthed voice, "Scrape your guardian angel up off the ground and enter Medusa's underworld palace!" The wizard then added, "If you dare!"

Then with a twirl, the wizard turned around and walked under the archway. He disappeared within the dark palace that looked like a twisted skull made of wax that had began to melt. There were giant stone columns that coiled off of the palace like snakes in Medusa's hair. The stone palace had been carved to perfection by enslaved Kobil.

Pit remains knelt beside his fallen ally. He cries, "Get up Toodles!" There is no reaction for the angel. Dozens of statues seemed to look down upon Pit's sorrow. Everyone had their frozen eyes upon him and he looked up to them with tears.

He was all alone, and he whimpered, "I'm the only one left." With his hands down on the ground, he stood himself to his feet. He looked over Toodles one last time, before he turned around to the palace.

That was it for the angel, Pit had turned his back on Toodles and walked away to restore humanity. He went through the isle of statues and made his way toward the mouth of the twisted palace.

The boy passed by snake statues that were high above his head and seemed to watch him. They stood ready with their mouths open and their stone fangs out. The eyes of each stone serpent were made of rubies and gleamed as if they were alive.

Something was moving from behind Pit. It was an unfolding in the background. As for Pit, his attention was on the towering serpents.

There was another flutter from behind Pit. A single wing tried to flap. Feathers were awry. It was like an injured bird; a wounded aviary trying to fly from the ground with a damaged wing.

Then the wing proceeded to wave goodbye to Pit. It made a flap sound, and Pit turned back around to see his guardian angel down on the ground lifeless.

The boy turned back around and continued to walk again. The wing sprang up once more and tried to flap. The feathers were all out of place. Pit turned around for a second time with another glance.

There was no motion from anything. No moving statues, no reaper, no reapettes, and more importantly, no movement from Toodles. Pit turned his gaze back to the snakes that seemingly lowered from the last time he looked up.

"I can't belief you walked away," said an unhappy voice.

Pit flipped around and saw the wing up and moving. The boy then ran down the stone plaza straight to his angel, whom he then dove on top of.

Toodles was smothered by love and hugs. It was enough to make the angel's skin crawl. The angel quipped, "Unhand me!" Then the angel started coughing, before it said, "I think I caught one of your diseases!"

Pit told Toodles, "Oh I knew you were alive! You told me angels blink out of existence!"

"Yeah?" wondered Toodles, "If you knew I was alive, why'd you walk away?"

"I thought you needed your rest," said Pit.

Toodles then uttered, "I've had enough lollygagging. Now get up off me before I blink out from your breath."

Pit knelt back from Toodles so the angel could get up. They stood face to face. Pit was low on his knees and the angel was on its feet. They were the exact same height and Pit even took his hand and used it to measure himself to compare himself to the angel.

Meanwhile, the angel was trying to fix its features. Eventually, Pit tried to help Toodles by fixing the features on the other wing. Toodles slapped Pit's hand and asked, "Do I pull on your wings?"

Then the angel noticed Pit had plucked a feather. Toodles uttered, "You're just lucky Palutena likes you."

The boy wondered, "She does?"

"No I'm joking," said the angel, who then quickly added, "Yes she likes you." As Toodles continued to fix its feathers, the angel elaborated, "She feels nothing for any mortal, but for some reason she likes you. I think maybe she likes you like a pet."

The angel then looked at Pit, who was covered in dirt, soot and grime. Then Toodles joked, "A pet frog from the look of it. Is there even a boy under that grime?"

"My dad wonders that all the time," said Pit.

Toodles flapped its wings and asks, "So, what did I miss?"

Pit answers, "A talking eggplant with a cane and a cape came out on the balcony and invited me into Medusa's palace?"

The angel wondered, "You're joking right?"

"No," said Pit, "He was serious!"

"No," retorted Toodles, "You're joking! I'm not going in there!" The angel looked to the palace and shivered.

Pit stood up and started to walk away, "The reaper wants you to stay out here and keep him company anyway."

With fear, Toodles quickly hopped to Pit and scurried along to follow him.

The boy asked the angel, "Scared?"

The angel replied, "No, I'm not scared, I just wanted to inform you that the reaper is a she. Why do you think she has her children and that long flowing hair?"

Then both of them stopped in their tracks as they heard the rippling sound of a pair of howls. Toodles clung to Pit's leg and uttered, "It sounds like twin bellows are trying to blow out a fire."

"Maybe Medusa has a really big fireplace," said Pit.

The two of them pass by a row of a dozen towering serpent statues and come to the open maw of the palace. The maw is a giant archway like a mouth. There is no door, nor would there be enough wood in the underworld to make one for the maw.

Inside is the foyer of Medusa's palace. A tiled floor made of marble and an ugly red carpet that strings through the center. The foyer is two very tall floors high with railings between each one of the dozens of columns. It's a second floor to look down upon guests.

There is a shadowy figure moving from column to column on the second floor as Pit and Toodles proceed through the foyer. The red carpet is lined with very tall statues of a beautiful woman.

Pit wonders about the statues, "Where are their heads?"

Toodles holds onto Pit's back instead of walking and answers, "They were statues of Medusa." He then elaborates, "She was once just as beautiful as Palutena, which is a shock considering that she never really saw the light of day. I guess when you've got all of the magical power in the universe to do what you want, staying pretty is a priority."

Pit asks again, "But where are their heads?"

"When Palutena punished her sister," Toodles began to say, "She was enraged at her loss of beauty and severed the head of each of her own statues. If Medusa can't be beautiful, she doesn't want to be reminded of it. Ya dig?"

Pit wondered, "With a shovel?"

Each statue was of the same beautiful Medusa, but in a different regal looking outfit. Togas, long dresses, one of her in armor even. Pit kept looked at each of their bodies as he passed by. He uttered, "It makes me feel funny looking at the statues."

"Yeah," said Toodles, "Look at those legs, how are those attractive? I like wings myself."

As they continued to walk along the checkered marble floor, they went by a few shattered skulls. There were no bodies, just skulls, broken apart.

A bellowing voice overtakes their conversation, "So the angel was alive after all!" At the end of the foyer, on the second floor was the Eggplant Wizard with his staff.

The wizard then pointed its staff at the two trespassers and Toodles uttered, "Watch it mortal. He can use magic and turn you into an eggplant."

Pit blurted, "Nuh-uh!"

The wizard shouted, "Silence! Medusa put me in charge of her palace while she is away. She told me to make sure there are no trespassers and you two are trespassing!"

Toodles yells to the wizard, "If you're in charge of the underworld, then this mortal here is in charge of the over world!" As they continue to talk, the ceiling begins to shift and move.

It makes the wizard laugh his insidious laugh, before informing them, "That mortal is the last one alive, he might as well be one in charge!" Another bellowing laugh comes from the wizard's hefty round belly, before he adds, "When you return to the over world, you won't have a friend in the world!"

The ceiling continued to shift and quietly rattle as the wizard laughs at its joke. Pit can hear the quiet rattles and looks up to see eyes looking down upon him. Above them is a hideous sea of eyes clumped together looking down at them both from a dark corner.

Pit utters, "Oh gross!"

Toodles quietly informed Pit, "They're Ganemede. Skeletal versions of Monoeyes created by Medusa's magic. They nest in her palace and guard the place from..."

Pit jumped in, "People like us?"

Toodles commented, "I don't think Medusa ever expected a boy and an angel to ever step foot in her palace."

The boy readied his bow and pointed an arrow upward to them. The angel then added, "I meant from over world creatures like lions."

They watched quietly as the ceiling shifted with drowsy Ganemedes. It sounded like rattling bones as the Ganemedes shifted and scraped against one another.

The eggplant wizard bellowed from the balcony, "They stay up there for the heat you know." Pit's bow then pointed at the eggplant wizard who commented, "Hey, don't point that thing at me!"

With that said, the wizard pointed its staff up toward the ceiling. If Pit lets an arrow fly, the wizard would let its magic fly.

The wizard then added, "They're always cold, because they have no skin, no muscle and no heart."

The dozens of eyes on the ceiling did not blink. Nor did they stare at the two trespassers. The Ganemedes were content on the warm ceiling.

Pit's bow pointed back overhead and the two quietly trekked through the grand hall to the doorway beneath the balcony.

Once they were halfway through the great hall, the eggplant wizard pointed its staff toward the ceiling. With a shout, it yelled, "Wake-e-ous! Skell-e-ous!" A beam of red light shot from the staff to the center of the ceiling and caused a wave of energy that sent an explosion of Ganemedes.

The eggplant wizard promptly turned around with the twirl of its cape and then quickly left through an archway between two statues. Pit and his angel were still on the checkered marble floor cowering beneath dozens of eyes.

In the light, Pit and his angel could see the Ganemedes were single eyed skulls that had bony fingers beneath their jaws that they used to grip one another or the ceiling. Dozens of bony jaws began to shriek from being disturbed. It was a piercing shriek that made Pit shudder beneath them and lose his aim.

Toodles grabbed Pit and said, "Come on fleshpot! Let's go!" It was like a wave of skulls that rippled off the ceiling and began to fly. Each one flew down and curved its trajectory toward Pit. Some of them couldn't avoid the marble floor in time and shattered on impact.

Pit began to let arrows fly. One arrow lanced a Ganemede to a column. Another arrow shot right through another's eye. A third arrow went into the temple of another.

He then had to duck, dodge and roll out of the way of Ganemedes seeking revenge for being disturbed. One swooped by Pit as he ducked. Another was dodged and flew right past him and two more smashed into each other and broke when Pit rolled across the checkered floor to avoid them.

Toodles yelled, "Come on!" The small angel waved for Pit, before it had to dodge a swooping Ganemede with a step back.

One Ganemede that continued to cling to the ceiling spoke with a soft raspy voice, "We serve..." Another Ganemede continued with the same voice, "As a warning..." A third one added, "Not a guardian..."

Pit continued to run away from angry Ganemede that swooped all around him. Their flight was magically powered and their anger was unrelenting. Another Ganemede smashed into the ground as Pit dashed out of the way.

The boy asked Toodles, "Why does everything have one eye?" He then elaborated his thought, "These skulls have one eye, eggplant wizard has one eye, monoeyes are ONE eye!"

Toodles quipped back, "When we find Medusa, you can ask her. You can ask her why she has one eye too."

The soft raspy voices continued, "Turn back..." "The way you came..." Pit shot an arrow through another and leapt over a different one only to tumble out of the way of a third and shoot a fourth when he stood up again.

Another skull howled with a raspy voice, "We're so hungry..." It swooped down at Pit, who then ducked and it smashed itself into a stone column.

When Pit stood up with his arrows firing, he asked, "How can you be hungry when you do not have a belly?" Another two arrows shot straight through the pupils of the tar black eyes.

Toodles shouted, "That's why they're always hungry!" The angel covered its yellow mop with its hands to keep the Ganemedes away.

Some of the skulls whaled, others howled and still others shrieked as they flew through the air down to Pit. The boy shot arrows through five more, but even with a dozen or so dispatched, there were still dozens left.

Toodles encouraged Pit, "Through that door!" Pit however, was busy shooting arrows. Another skull was shot, and a different one smashed itself into Pit's shoulder.

It was enough force to knock the boy down and another skull swooped down. That skull battered into Pit, while a different one shrieked and sent itself down to the boy. They were hitting Pit with their foreheads, until he finally rolled to the side.

More Ganemedes swarmed around him and wouldn't let him stand up again. A wave of them surrounded him and soon after, Toodles lost sight of the boy as they engulfed him. Pit was encased in dozens of hungry skulls. Toodles could still see the struggle of Pit and the angel cried out to him.

One of the few Ganemede still clinging to the ceiling slowly breathed its voice, "This is where..." "Your fate ends..." continued another from the ceiling before it let go and swooped down.

It was like a faint whitish blue ribbon in the air as it flew to Pit. Just as it reached the swarm of Ganemedes, Pit's body flew through the air out of the swarm. In one hand he held a skull; in the other hand was his bow.

When Pit landed, he was on his hip and he threw the skull into the swarm. It didn't break, but Pit quickly stood up and readied his bow. He sent arrow after arrow into the swarm. Toodles quickly appeared and grabbed the boy's leg to tug him away from the situation.

Eventually, Pit turned around and grabbed his guardian angel by the mop and took off running for the exit beneath the balcony. The angel was screaming in fear as they were chased by a wall of shrieking skulls.

Once they were through the archway, Pit let go of the angel and readied his bow at the Ganemede. He then uttered, "Close the door Toodles, you are letting out the heat." The bronze arrow was launched into the swarm and Toodles huffing and puffing slammed the door shut.

There were shrieks from beyond the door and impacts as Toodles rest its back against it to keep the heat in the other room. On the other side, the Ganemedes put their collective effort into it, with each forehead pressed against the arching door. They pushed, and Pit put his foot on the door to brace it even further.

Toodles then commented, "Ah. I think we've got another problem."

With Pit's foot still against the door, he swung his head to look in the room and wondered, "What's that?"

The room they were now in had upside-down pots fixed to the ceiling. Beneath of the pots were stone statues of Centurions that had fear, permanently etched on their faces. At the feet of the Centurions, the floor was moving.

Toodles became luminescent so they could see why the floor was moving only to discover that there were winged blue snakes. The marble floor of Medusa's palace was covered with Shemums. On the shoulder of the stone Centurions were more snakes wrapped around them. Pouring from the ceiling came more snakes out of the upside-down pots.

Pit proclaimed, "I think I'm gonna be sick."

The angel wondered, "Can I be that too?"

The eerie howl diverted their attention from the snakes, followed by the echo of the howl. Pit put his shoulder against the door and became wide eyed as he thought about everything. The snake covered floor, the skulls trying to get in the door, the warriors turned to stone, and the stereophonic howl and just then, the cackle of Medusa's insidious laugh could be heard.


End file.
